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1/NIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA,  SAN  m99 
LA  JOLLA.  CALIFORNIA 


I 


ADDRESS 


SOCIAL    FESTIVA.I. 


OF 


THE     BAR 


OP 


WORCESTER     COUNTY, 


3yE-A.ss-A.oia:xjssa:TS, 


FEB.     7,     1856 


B  Y 

HON.    EMORY    WASHBURN. 


^VORCESTER: 

PRINTED    BY    HENRY    J.    ROWLAND, 

245  Main  Street. 


F 

12. 


SOCIA.L    FESTIVAL. 


At  a  meeting  of  the  Bai-  of  the  County  of  Worcester,  held,  in 
pursuance  of  notice,  at  the  Law  Library,  Sept.  15,  1855,  L-a  M. 
Barton  was  called  to  the  chair,  and  Joseph  Mason  appointed 
Secretary. 

On  motion  of  the  Hon.  Nathaniel  Wood,  of  Fitchburg,  a  com- 
mittee was  raised  to  consider   the  subject  of  a  Social  Festival  of 
the  Bar,  with  instructions  to  report   at  a  future  meeting,  and  the 
following  gentlemen  were  appointed  : 
Ira  M.  Barton, 
Nathaniel  Wood, 
Benjamin  D.  Hyde, 
Francis  Deane, 
George  W.  Richardson, 
Henry  Chapin, 
George  F.  Hoar. 
During  the  Law  Term   of  the  Supreme  Court,  holden  at  Wor- 
cester on  the  first  Tuesday  of  the  next   October,    the  Committee 
reported  in  favor  of  such   a   Festival,  to  embrace  also  the  objects 
of  an  historical  address,   the  improvement   of  the   County   Law 
Library,  and  the  formation  of  an  Association  of  the  Bar. 

The  Report  of  the  committee  was  unanimously  accepted,  and 
the  same  gentlemen  were  appointed  a  committee  of  arrangements, 
to  carry  their  recommendations  into  effect. 

The  time  and  place  designated  for  the  Festival,  was  Worcester, 
Feb.  7,  1856,  it  being  the  day  of  the  first  semi-annual  meeting 
of  the  Justices  of  the  Court  of  Common  Pleas,  in  that  city  ;  and 
the  Hon.  Emory  Washburn  accepted  an  invitation  to  deliver  the 
address  upon  the  occasion. 


Distinguished  members  of  the  Bar  and  of  the  Bench,  from  Mas- 
sachusetts and  the  neighboring  States,  were  invited  as  guests, 
and  on  the  day  appointed,  at  5  o'clock  P.  M.,  at  the  New  Court 
House,  Ex-Governor  Washburn  delivered  his  address. 

Immediately  after  the  address,  the  company,  under  the  direction 
of  Col.  Geo.  W.  Richardson,  the  Sherift'  of  the  County,  and 
Marshal  of  the  occasion,  repaired  to  the  Bay  State  House,  where, 
after  an  hour's  agreeable  re-union  in  the  spacious  and  elegant 
saloons  of  that  establishment,  more  than  an  hundred  sat  down  to 
a  supper,  well  provided  by  Messrs.  Clifford  &  Foster.  A  blessing 
Avas  invoked  by  the  Rev.  Dr.  Alonzo  Hill,  and  the  Hon.  Ira  M. 
Barton  presided,  assisted  by  the  Hon.  Messrs.  Newton,  Wood, 
Chapin  and  Deane,  as  Vice  Presidents. 

The  festive  part  of  the  occasion  was  introduced  by  remarks 
from  the  President,  in  the  course  of  which  he  referred  in  appro- 
priate and  respectful  terms,  to  Mr.  Justice  Byington  of  the  Com- 
mon l^leas,  whose  lamented  and  very  recent  demise,  deprived  ihe 
company  of  the  honor  of  the  presence  of  all  the  Judges  of  that 
Court. 

The  following  sentiments  were  then  announced  by  the  Chair. 

1.  The  President  of  the  United  States,  and  the  Governor  of  the  Common- 
wealth. 

2.  The  Judiciary  of  the  Commonwealth,  and  the  health  of  j\Ir.  Justice 
Thomas. 

This  sentiment  was  very  eloquently  responded  to  by  the  Hon. 
Benj.  F.  Thomas,  one  of  the  associate  justices  of  the  Supreme 
Court. 

3.  Our  national  and  State  .Judiciaries.  Complicated  and  nicely  adjusted 
systems  of  jurisprudence.  But  under  an  administration  by  good  and  wise 
men,  upon  the  just  principles  of  international  law,  no  colli-sion  can  ever 
take  place  between  them ;  certainly  not  on  this  occasion. 

The  following  letter  was  received  from  the  Hon.  Benj.  R. 
Curtis  of  Boston,  an  associate  justice  of  the  Supreme  Court  of 
the  United  States.  For  the  reading  of  this  and  other  letters,  the 
chair  was  indebted  to    Chas.  C.  B.  Snow,  Esquire,  of  Fitchburg. 

"Washington,  Jan.  21,  1856. 

Hon.  Tea.  IM.  Barton, — Dear  Sir  :  I  received  your  invitation,  in  behalf 
of  the  Committee  of  the  Bar  of  the  County  of  Worcester,  to  attend  their 


Social  Festival,  to  be  held  at  AVorcester  on  the  evening  of  the  7th  Feb.  next. 
If  my  duties  hei'e  would  permit,  it  would  give  me  much  pleasure  to  be 
present.  With  some  of  the  older  members  of  the  Bar  of  Worcester  County, 
I  have  had,  in  former  years,  relations  too  pleasant  to  be  easily  forgotten  ; 
and  for  the  younger  members  of  the  profession  there,  as  well  as  elsewhere 
in  my  native  State,  I  feel  an  interest,  which  would  render  me  glad  to  meet 
them,  and  make  their  acquaintance.  Notwithstanding  the  severe  contests 
of  the  bar,  which  a  stranger  might  suppose  would  inevitably  alienate  law- 
yers from  each  other,  I  believe  there  is  no  profession,  or  occupation,  whose 
followers  entertain  for  each  other,  so  much  cordial  good  will,  and  do  so  much 
to  help  one  another,  as  the  members  of  our  profession.  And  I  have  long 
thought  that  it  would  promote  these  kindly  feelings,  and  be  in  no  small 
degree  serviceable,  particularly  to  the  younger  members  of  the  profession, 
to  meet  together  as  you  propose  to  do.  I  made  a  strong  effort,  some  years 
since,  to  arrange  a  plan  for  this  purpose.  It  failed,  but  I  was  not  convinced 
that  the  objects  were  not  desirable,  or  were  unattainable.  I  am  glad  to 
learn  that  you  are  about  to  have  a  Social  Festival  of  the  Bar  of  AYorcester 
County. 

I  do  not  know  whether  there  will  be  any  place  for  what  is  called  a  "  sen- 
timent" in  these  times,  when  toasts  must  not  be  spoken  of — if  there  is,  I 
would  offer  the  enclosed.  With  great  respect. 

Your  Obed't  Serv't, 

B.  E.  CURTIS. 

A  learned,  industrious,  upright  and  faithful  Bar — The  indispensable  guide 
and  support  of  a  just,  wise,  courageous  and  learned  Bench — The  Common- 
wealth of  Massachusetts  has  always  had  both,  and  its  people  have  known 
how  to  value  them. 

4.  Hon.  Judge  Sprague,  of  the  District  Court  of  the  United  States. 
Brought  up  at  the  feet  of  a  Worcester  Gamaliel,  he  has  done  equal  honor 
to  himself,  and  to  his  instructor. 

BosTox,  Jan.  18,  1856. 
Gentlemen  : — I  regret  that  it  is  not  in  my  power  to  accept  your  invi- 
tation to  the  Social  Festival  of  the  Bar  of  Worcester  County.  The  state  of 
my  health  peremptorily  forbids  me  that  pleasure.  It  would  have  afforded 
me  peculiar  satisfaction  to  have  visited  Worcester  upon  such  an  occasion. 
My  associations  with  your  Bar,  go  b  ick  to  the  year  1811:,  when  I  was  a 
student  in  the  office  of  the  Hon.  Levi  Lincoln,  who  was  then  distinguished 
as  a  Lawyer  and  an  Advocate,  and  h  is  since  most  honorably  filled  two  of 
the  most  eminent  offices  in  the  State.  And  I  have  a  vivid  recollection  of 
many  of  the  eminent  Lawyers,  who  then  and  since  have  so  greatly  distin- 
guished the  Bar  of  Worcester  Cuuuty.  Accept  my  thanks.  Gentlemen,  for 
the  honor  conferred  by  your  invitation,  and  believe  me, 

Very  PiespectfuUy  yours, 

P.  SPRAGUE. 
To  Messrs.  Ira  M.  Barton  and  others. 


5.  Ex-Governor  Lincoln.  The  Nestor  amongst  Massachusetts  lawyers, 
Judges  and  Governors. 

This  sentiment  elicited  a  very  interesting  speech  from  the  Hon. 
Levi  Lincoln. 

The  health  of  the  Hon.  Samuel  Hoar  of  Concord,  was  here 
given,  and  received  by  the  company  rising.  The  venerable  com- 
peer of  Ex-Governor  Lincoln,  acknowledged  the  compliment  in 
remarks  at  once  forcible  and  happy. 

6.  New  Hampshire.  A  standing  demonstration  of  the  fact,  that  "  giving 
does  not  impoverish."  She  has  given  us  her  Websters,  her  Masons,  her 
Bells,  and  her  Parkers  ;  but  yet,  she  has  more  of  the  same  sort  left. 

In  the  absence  of  Chief  Justice  Perley  of  the  Supreme  Court 
of  New  Hampshire,  whose  presence  was  prevented  by  sickness,  the 
company  called  for  the  Hon.  Joel  Parker,  one  of  the  emigrants 
referred  to.  But  before  responding,  the  chair  requested  him  to 
notice,  also,  the  following  sentiment. 

7.  The  Law  School  of  Harvard  College.  By  the  sound  principles  of  Con- 
stitutional law,  there  inculcated,  and  the  genial  associations  of  young  men, 
there  formed,  it  constitutes  the  best  guaranty  of  the  Union. 

These  sentiments  Avere  aptly  and  eloquently  spoken  to  by  Pro- 
fessor Parker,  of  the  Dane  Law  School  in  Harvard  College,  and 
formerly  Chief  Justice  of  New  Hampshire. 

8.  Maine.  A  worthy  daughter  of  Old  Massachusetts.  She  may  well 
rejoice  in  her  Heraldic  "  Dirigo,"  but  she  must  never  undertake  to  direct 
the  old  folks. 

The  following  note  was  received  from  the  Hon.  John  S.  Ten- 
ney,  a  native  of  Massachusetts,  and  now  Chief  Justice  of  the 
Supreme  Court  of  Maine. 

NoRRiDGEWocK,  Feb.  2,  1856. 

Ira  M.  Barton,  Esq., — Dear  Sir  :  On  returning  to  my  residence  from 
a  long  absence,  T  found  your  favor  of  the  12th  ult.,  kindly  inviting  me  to 
attend  the  "  Social  Festival  "  of  the  Bar,  on  the  evening  of  Thursday,  tlie 
7th  inst.,  at  Worcester. 

On  such  an  occasion,  and  to  hear  an  address  from  the  distinguished 
gentleman  selected  for  the  purpose,  it  would  give  me  gi-eat  pleasure  to  be 
present  with  the  members  of  the  profession,  to  which  I  am  proud  to  consider 
myself  as  belonging,  in  my  native  Commonwealth,  especially  in  the  County 


of  Worcester,  where  the  Bar  has  been  conspicuous  for  gentlemen  of  talents 
and  legal  attainments. 

But  I  am  sorry  to  say,  that  I  must  deny  myself  this  gratification  on  ac- 
count of  business  of  an  official  character,  which  cannot  be  postponed. 

Accept,  dear  sir,  for  yourself  personally,  and  the  committee,  in  whose 
behalf  you  extended  your  invitation  to  me,  the  feeling  of  the  highest  respect. 

JOHN  S.  TENNEY. 

The  Hon.  R.  H.  Vose  of  Augusta,  a  distinguished  naember  of 
the  profession,  who  received  his  legal  education  in  Worcester, 
transmitted  to  the  committee  the  following  sentiment. 

The  Bar  of  Worcester  County.  May  the  glorious  history  of  the  past,  never 
be  dimmed  by  the  future. 

The  Hon.  Chief  Justice  Redfield,  of  the  Supreme  Court  of 
Vermont,  sent  the  following  complimentary  note,  regretting  his 
inability  to  attend  the  Festival. 

Windsor,  Jan'y  22,  1856. 
Hon.  Ira  M.  Barton, — Dear  Sir  :  It  would  afford  me  very  sincere  pleas- 
ure, to  be  able  to  attend  your  Festival,  but  as  the  time  comes  in  the  midst 
of  one  of  our  terms,  it  will  not  be  in  my  power.  The  slight  acquaintance 
I  have  had  with  the  Bench  and  the  Bar  of  Massachusetts,  and  their 
uniform  and  marked  courtesy  towards  me,  certainly  renders  the  deprivation 
which  I  now  suffer,  in  not  being  able  to  avail  myself  of  this  opportunity 
of  meeting  them,  a  serious  disappointment. 

Very  truly  yours, 

ISAAC  F.  REDFIELD. 

9.  The  Ex-Judges  of  our  Supreme  Court.  Equally  honored  upon  the 
Bench,  and  in  their  retirement. 

The  following  letter  and  sentiment  from  the  Hon.  Richard 
Fletcher,  formerly  an  associate  justice  of  the  "Supreme  Court, 
were  then  read. 

Boston,  Feb.  4th,  1856. 
Dear  Sm : — I  regret  that  it  will  not  be  in  my  power  to  be  present  at  the 
Social  Festival  of  the  Bar  of  Worcester  County,  on  the  7th  instant.  You 
will  please  to  make  my  acknowledgments  to  the  Bar  for  their  kind  invita- 
tion. It  would  be  well  if  such  meetings  were  more  frequent.  They  might 
do  much  good  by  animating  and  encouraging  the  members  of  the  profession 
in  their  efforts  for  advancement  in  learning  and  usefulness,  and  by  incul- 
cating and  keeping  alive,  and  in  action,  those  high  and  honorable  principles 
and  maxims,  which  should  form  the  characters,  and  govern  the  conduct  of 
those,  who  minister  in  the  temple  of  Justice.  It  is  unhappily  too  true, 
that  the  lawyer  is  constantly  exposed  to  temptation  to  overstep  the  bounds 


of  right  and  duty.  In  the  earnest  and  ardent  contests  of  the  forum,  his 
zeal  for  his  client,  and  his  desire  for  victory,  tend  to  divert  his  attention 
from  the  claims  of  truth  and  justice  ;  yet  certain  it  is,  that  no  better  mode 
has  been  discovered,  no  better  mode  is  known,  for  administering  justice, 
than  by  the  services  of  a  body  of  men  properly  educated  and  prepared  to 
represent  the  suitors,  to  present  their  claims,  and  discuss  their  rights. 
Such  a  body  of  men  is  indispensable,  to  do  for  parties  what  they  are  unable 
to  do  for  themselves. 

The  profession  of  the  law,  properly  pursued,  is  a  useful  and  honorable 
profession.  But  to  maintain  that  character,  lawyers  must  vigilantly  and 
scrupulously  guai'd  themselves  against  the  evils  and  dangers,  with  which 
they  are  continually  beset.  From  age  to  age  the  profession  has  been 
adorned  by  good  and  great  men.  Two  eminent  men.  Judges  Wilde  and 
Jackson,  have  recently  departed  from  among  us,  who  have  left  us  noble  ex- 
amples of  pure,  upright,  honorable  and  useful  lives.  There  should  be  some 
more  enduring  memorial  of  such  men,  than  a  brief  eulogy,  suddenly  called 
forth,  at  the  time  of  their  decease.  I  earnestly  hope  and  trust  that  your 
Festival  may  be  an  occasion  of  great  pleasure  and  profit  to  the  Bar  of  Wor- 
cester County,  for  whom  I  entertain  the  highest  respect  and  regard. 

I  subjoin  a  borrowed  sentence,  which  expresses  a  just  and  appropriate 
sentiment. 

Very  faithfully  and  truly  yours, 

RICHARD  FLETCHER. 

Hon.  Ii"a  M.  Barton,  for  the  Committee. 

The  Profession  of  the  Law,  "  Let  it  be  remembered  and  treasured  in 
the  heart  of  every  student,  that  no  man  can  ever  be  a  truly  great  lawyer, 
•who  is  not,  in  every  sense  of  the  word,  a  good  man." 

10.  The  Hon.  Judge  Merrick.  A  refugee  from  the  Worcester  Bar.  We 
have  lost  a  good  companion;  the  State  has  gained  a  good  Judge. 

The  following  note  was  received  from  Mr.  Justice  Merrick  of 
the  Supreme  Court. 

Boston,  Feb.  7th,  1856. 
My  Dear  Sir  : — It  is  with  the  deepest  regret  that  I  find  myself  unable 
to  unite  with  the  gentlemen  of  the  Bar  of  the  County  of  Worcester  in  their 
Festival  this  evening.  I  had  looked  forward  to  a  participation  with  them 
in  the  pleasure  of  this  occasion,  with  the  utmost  expectation  and  desire, 
and  I  am  greatly  disappointed  that  I  cannot  do  so.  My  health,  within  a 
few  days  past,  has  given  way,  and  I  am  unavoidably  detained  at  home  by 
an  illness,  which,  though  it  does  not  threaten  to  be  of  long  duration,  is  still 
sufficient,  at  present,  to  confine  me  to  my  house.  Thus  constrained  against 
my  will  to  be  absent  from  you  this  evening,  I  shall  yet  heartily  sympathize 
with  you  in  your  festivity.  It  was  in  the  midst  of  the  scenes  of  their 
present  occupation,  that  I  have  spent  the  largest,  the  most  laborious,  and 
the  happiest  portion  of  my  life,  and  I  cannot,  therefore,  but  feel  identified 


a 

■with  my  professional  friends  and  brethren  of  the  Bjxr  of  the  County  of  Wor- 
cester. And  I  can  never  fail  to  take  the  deepest  interest  in  whatever  ad- 
ministers to  their  gratification  or  advances  them  in  the  honorable  rank  they 
hold  in  the  community.  I  shall  always  rejoice  in  whatever  promotes  their 
welfare,  or  contributes  to  their  individual  prosperity,  success,  and  happiness. 
I  am  very  trujy  yours  &c.,  &c, 

I'LINY  MERRICK. 
Hon.  I.  M.  Barton,  for  Committee  of  Bar  of  County  of  Worcester. 

11.  The  Ex-Judges  of  the  Court  of  Common  Pleas.  None  the  less  entitled 
to  our  respect  and  reverence,  although  they  tread  upon  our  corns  somewhat 
more  lightly  than  in  days  gone  by. 

Hon.  E.  R.  Hoar  well  sustained  the  family  reputation  in  his 
happy  response  to  this  sentiment. 

12.  The  Old  Plymouth  Colony.  She  can  never  lose  caste  in  the  Bay  State, 
so  long  as  she  produces  our  Shaws,  our  Spragues  and  our  Cliffords.  She 
has  furnished  more  than  one  distinguished  Page  in  our  history. 

The  following  is  a  sentiment  received  from  the  Hon.  J.  H.  W. 
Page  of  New  Bedford. 

The  Social  Festival  of  the  Bar  of  Worcester  County.  May  it  be  crowned 
with  all  success,  and  prove  the  re-dawning  of  a  day  which  old  members  of 
the  Bar  remember  with  pride. 

13.  The  Orator  of  1829.  In  erecting  a  "  Corinthian  column  "  to  the 
memory  of  those  who  first  gave  distinction  to  this  Bar,  he  created  for 
himself  a  monument  equally  beautiful  and  lasting. 

This  sentiment  drew  a  neat  and  interesting  response  from  Jo- 
seph Willard,. Esquire,  of  Boston,  who  addressed  this  Bar,  on  an 
occasion  like  the  present,  Oct.  2,  1829. 

It.  The  Bar  of  Suffolk.  Confessedly,  the  head  of  the  Bar  of  the  Com- 
monwealth. But  they  should  remember  where  their  best  lawyers  come 
from. 

The  truth  of  this  sentiment  was  happily  illustrated  by  Hon. 
Wm.  Brigham,  of  the  Suffolk  Bar  ;  but  claiming  the  double  dom- 
icil  of  Boston  and  Grafton. 

15.  The  river  Counties  of  Old  [Massachusetts.  While  the  names  of  Mills, 
Alvord,  Ashmun  and  Bliss,  throw  a  melancholy  glory  over  the  past,  the 
light  of  genius,  eloquence  and  tiue  hospitality,  shed  a  brilliant  radi^ance 
over  the  present. 

The  speech  of  the  Hon.  Wm.  G.  Bates  in  answer  to  this  senti- 
ment, was  characterized  by  genuine  wit,  and  attic  taste. 
9. 


10 

The  President  here  congratulated  himself  and  the  company, 
that  he  had  a  Vice  President,  who  was  both  a  poet  and  a  lawyer, 
and  he,  with  great  pleasure,  introduced  the  Hon.  Henry  Chapin, 
as  poet  lawyerate  and  presiding  officer. 

Mr.  Chapin  read  the  following  pleasant  effusion,  and  then  pro- 
posed the  concluding  sentiments. 

We  hasten  to  this  festive  board, 

In  omnibus  and  car, 
To  feed  on  what  our  means  afford, 

We  children  of  th^  Bar. 

Old  Worcester  County  gathers  now, 

Without  a  single  jar, 
Her  sons,  who  make  their  earnest  vow, 

Ne'er  to  disgrace  the  Bar. 

'Tis  well  for  men,  at  times,  to  know 

Precisely  what  they  are. 
And  law  and  fact  combine  to  show, 

When  one  has  seen  the  Bar. 

The  Frenchman,  as  he  staggers  up 

And  utters  his  "  be  gar," 
Fresh  with  the  flavor  of  the  cup, 

Has  surely  seen  a  Bar. 

The  yankee,  as  he  swells  and  swears. 

And  smokes  his  long  cigar, 
Upon  his  perfumed  image  bears 

The  impress  of  a  Bar. 

But  we,  who  battle  for  the  right, 

With  many  a  wound  and  scar, 
Must  stand  and  fight,  with  all  our  might, 

At  quite  another  Bar. 

And  he  who  means  to  triumph  here, 

Though  he  may  wander  far. 
Must  watch  with  vision  bright  and  clear, 

Our  jewels  of  the  Bar. 

We  greet  without  the  weakest  wine. 

Full  many  a  brilliant  star. 
While  round  us  now,  are  bound  to  shine, 

These  meteors  of  the  Bar. 


li 

And  as  we  meet,  with  chastened  glee, 

May  nought  our  feelings  mar, 
And  while  the  shades  of  evening  flee. 

Let's  consecrate  the  Bar. 

IG.  The  city  of  Springfield.  While  the  beautiful  in  natm-e — the  skillful 
in  art,  and  the  best  of  good  eating  commend  themselves  to  the  taste  or 
the  appetite  of  man,  the  Queen  City  of  the  Valley  will  continue  to  be  a 
sort  of  Mecca  to  the  pilgrims  of  Old  Massachusetts. 

This  sentiment  was  appropriately  responded  to  by  Hon.  K..  G. 
Chapman,  of  Springfield. 

17.  The  Town  of  Fitchburg.  One  of  the  brightest  jewels  in  the  good  old 
County  of  Worcester. 

We  have  been  friends  together, 

The  past  we  can't  forget, 
What'er  the  wind  or  weather,. 

Oh  do  not  part  us  yet. 

This  sentiment  called  up  Hon.  Nathaniel  Wood,  of  Fitchburg, 
who,  as  usual,  was  at  home. 

18.  The  Judge  of  Probate  of  the  County  of  Worcester.  Like  his  prede" 
cessors,  he  not  only  fulfils  the  duties  of  his  office  with  dignity  and  fidelity, 
but  is  remarkably  popular  among  the  poor  widows  of  the  County. 

This  sentiment  elicited  a  happy  response  from.  Hon.  Judge 
Kinnicutt. 

19.  The  past  and  present  District  Attornies  of  the  County  of  Worcester* 
The  maxim  that  more  worship  the  rising  than  the  setting  sun,  here  fails 
in  its  application,  for  they  all  have,  and  deserve  to  have,  the  confidence  and 
respect  of  their  brethren  of  the  Bar,  and  of  the  community  with  which 
they  are  so  closely  connected. 

There  being  so  many  to  whom  this  sentiment  applied,  the  com- 
pany lost  the  benefit  or  any  specific  reply. 

20.  The  Sheriff  of  the  County  of  Worcester.  His  courtesy  to  the  people, 
his  kindness  to  the  prisoner,  and  his  generous  smoothing  of  the  rough  spots 
in  a  lawyer's  existence,  richly  entitle  him  to  our  heartfelt  wish,  that  his 
shadow  may  never  be  less. 

To  this  sentiment,  sherifi"  Richardson  made  a  characteristic  reply. 

21.  Old  Uxbridge.  God  bless  her.  In  former  days  she  rejoiced  in  a  duet. 
To  day  she  supports  a  trio. 

George  S.  Taft,  Esq.,  well  represented  the  place  of  his  birth 
in  a  response  to  this  sentiment. 


12 

22.  The  Town  of  Petersham.  The  blood  of  the  fathers  yet  runs  in  the 
veins  of  the  sons.  We  welcome  to  our  feast  to  night  a  son  worthy  of  his 
sire. 

F.  A.  Brooks,  Esq.,  of  Boston,  son  of  tlie  late  Hon.  Aaron 
Brooks,  of  Petersham,  made  a  brief  and  appropriate  reply. 

It  being  now  nearly  1  o'clock,  the  company  separated  with 
the  best  feelings,  satisfied  that  the  occasion  had  been  fully  equal 
to  the  most  ardent  expectations  of  the  most  sanguine  advocate 
of  it.  And  if  the  spirit  which  animated  the  members  at  this 
Festival,  shall  be  carried  to  its  legitimate  result,  similar  gath- 
erings will  ensue,  and  serve  to  brighten  and  perpetuate  those  gen- 
erous and  fraternal  sentiments  in  the  hearts  of  the  members  of 
the  bar,  which  are  alike  honorable  to  themselves,  agreeable  to 
the  courts,  and  useful  to  their  clients. 


Worcester,  Feb.  22,  1856. 
Hon.  Emoey  Washburn, 

Dear  Sir :  —  As  Chairman  of  the  Committee  of  Arrangements  for 
the  recent  Festival  of  the  Bar  of  the  County  of  Worcester,  and  in  pursuance 
of  a  vote  of  the  Bar,  I  am  instructed  to  tender  you  "  Their  sincere  thanks, 
for  your  valuable,  interesting,  and  eloquent  Address,  delivered  on  the  oc- 
casion, and  to  request  a  copy  of  the  same  for  publication." 
Very  Respectfully  Yours, 

IRA  M.  BARTON, 


Worcester,  3Iarch  1,  1856. 
Dear  Sir : — In  complying  with  the    request  contained  in  your  note  of 
the  28th  ult.,  I  am  performing  a  pleasant  duty,  rather  than  following  any 
personal  wish  to  give  publicity  to  the  address. 

The  memorials  that  a  lawyer  is  ordinarily  able  to  leave  of  his  efforts  at 
the  bar,  are  necessarily  brief.  The  arena  upon  which  his  powers  are  exer- 
cised, is  removed  from  public  observation,  and  some  of  the  noblest  exertions 
of  the  human  intellect  have  been  spent  in  determining  questions  of  private 
right,  to  be  forgotten  with  the  occasion  that  called  them  forth.  If,  therefore, 
my  brethren  have  furnished  me  an  occasion  to  collect  some  memorials  of 
those  who  have  heretofore  iilled  places  at  the  Bar,  and  are  willing  to  give 
them  a  more  permanent  form  than  the  entertainment  of  a  festive  hour,  I 
do  not  feel  that  I  have  a  right  to  decline  the  request. 
I  am,  Very  Respectfully, 

Your  Ob't  Serv't, 

EMORY  WASHBURN. 
Hon.  IRA  M.  BARTON,  Chairman  ^c. 


ADDRESS. 


I  am  to  speak  this  evening  of  the  Law  and  its  progress, 
and  of  this  Bar  and  its  changes,  during  the  last  twenty-five 
years. 

Measured  by  the  experience  of  a  life,  how  large  is  the 
space  which  that  period  occupies ! 

Of  all  those  who  filled  the  places  we  occupy,  twenty-five 
years  ago,  how  few  are  here  to  night,  to  share  in  the  remi- 
niscences which  it  is  designed  to  awaken.  And  what  a  grave 
has  been  opened  and  closed  over  bright  hopes,  generous  as- 
pirations, and  stirring  ambition,  in  the  solemn  experience  of 
these  few  brief  years. 

What  a  change  have  they  wrought  in  the  individual  man ! 
The  stout  frame  has  been  bowed,  the  flowing  locks  have 
been  bleached  and  scattered,  the  beaming  eye  clouded  and 
dimmed,  the  gladsome  spirits  saddened,  and  the  shadows  of 
coming  evening  grown  fearfully  long,  as  the  lingerer  stops 
in  his  lonely  walk,  and  looks  around  in  vain  for  some  once 
familiar  companion  of  his  earlier  days. 

They  found  a  young  man  full  of  hope,  they  have  made 
him  an  old  man  full  of  experience. 

But  if  we  contemplate  this  period  in  contrast  with  the 
life  of  the  Common  Law,  of  whose  history  it  forms  a  most 
important  chapter,  it  dwindles  to  the  measure  of  a  moment's 
space. 

The  origin  of  that  system  is  indeed  so  distant  that  the 
long  vista  of  ages,  through  which,  alone,  the  mind  can  re- 


16 

gard  it,  blends  in  its  perspective,  the  hues  of  truth  and 
error,  like  the  melting  of  the  dim  outline  of  the  blue  ocean 
with  the  bluer  sky,  when  we  look  out  upon  its  waters,  as 
they  sleep  in  the  stillness  of  a  summer's  twilight. 

I  go  back  in  my  research,  to  the  day  when  Rome  was 
gathering  up  her  giant  limbs  to  die,  and  left  the  few  and 
scattered  fragments  of  her  imperial  institutions,  like  the 
relics  of  half  legible  inscriptions,  and  old  imperishable  stone 
work,  on  which  the  eye  of  the  antiquary  reads  the  tale  of 
the  five  centuries  of  Roman  power  and  glory  in  that  island. 

I  trace  the  slow  and  silent  growth  of  institutions,  which 
through  another  period  of  six  hundred  years,  were  spring- 
ing up,  under  the  rule  of  a  rude  people,  and  I  pause  to  ad- 
mire the  sturdy  independence,  so  nearly  approaching  to 
freedom,  of  the  Saxon,  while  I  read  the  simple  but  wise 
ordinances  of  Ina  and  Alfred,  and  listen  to  the  counsels  of 
their  Wittenageraot — the  future  Parliament  of  Great  Britain, 
and  mark  the  first  rough  outline  of  that  form  of  trial,  which 
has  since  protected  so  many  against  the  power  of  the  oppres- 
sor, by  the  majesty  of  a  Juror's  oath. 

And,  as  I  contemplate  this  broad,  deep  laid,  rough  foun- 
dation of  Saxon  law,  I  see  planted  and  rising  upon  it,  that 
stupendous  fabric  of  Feudalism,  which  the  Norman  conquest 
brought  with  it  as  the  element  of  its  power  and  its  perpe- 
tuity. The  Baron's  castle  in  the  midst  of  his  broad  domain, 
is  frowning  over  the  hut  and  cottage  of  his  vassal  and  his 
serf.  The  mitred  Bishop  keeps  the  conscience  of  the  King, 
and  is  stealing  in  upon  the  frank  and  manly  doctrines  of 
the  English  law,  with  the  subtle  and  artful  inventions  of 
the  church,  while  the  monarch  is  himself  waging  an  unequal 
contest  against  the  ascendency  of  the  Pope  on  the  one  hand, 
and  a  storm  of  domestic  faction  with  his  Barons  on  the  other. 

I  see  these  Barons  gathering  at  Runny mede,  and  among 
the  memorable  records  of  what  those  stern  old  warriors 
thought  and  did  there,  I  read  as  a  concession  wrung  from 
royal  fear,  but   treasured  forever  after  in  a  nation's  heart, 


17 

the  development  of  that  great  element  of  personal  right 
and  private  justice — "  NuUi  vendimus  nulli  negabimus,  aut 
di ffer emus,  ^miiiiSiVa.  vel  rectum." 

And  as  we  recall  that  scene  in  fancy,  and  the  thought 
flashes  across  the  mind  that  some  gifted  spirit  among  those 
men  of  iron  nerve,  may,  with  prophetic  vision,  have  read 
that  memorable  declaration,  as  we  may  now,  engraved  upon 
the  seal  of  a  Court  of  Common  Law,  presiding  over  the 
civil  rights  of  a  million  of  Freemen,  with  a  wisdom  and 
learning  of  which  the  pages  of  Glanville  and  Bracton  fur- 
nish but  barren  rudiments, — in  a  land  which  even  fancy  had, 
till  that  moment,  never  conceived,  the  whole  comes  back 
upon  the  imagination,  as  a  spectacle  of  moral  grandeur, 
compared  with  which  the  by-play  of  war  sinks  into  insig- 
nificance. 

I  trace,  still  onward,  that  course  of  events,  which,  infus- 
ing new  elements  into  the  body  of  the  law,  changes  not 
only  the  relations  of  property,  but  the  very  ideas  of  social 
duties  and  political  rights. 

The  cunning  shrewdness  of  the  clergy  has  substituted 
under  the  guise  of  "  Uses  "  the  superstitions  of  a  vitiated 
conscience,  for  the  plain,  homely  precedents  of  feudal  sim- 
plicity, cheating  alike  the  crown  and  the  Lord  of  their 
cherished  prerogatives,  and  gathering  into  the  granary  of 
the  church  the  best  fruits  of  the  English  soil,  in  spite  of 
charter  and  of  statute. 

There  is  something  even  dramatic  in  witnessing  this  strug- 
gle,— sturdy,  English  doggedness  triumphing  over  priestly 
cunning.  Parliament  has  met  at  Merton.  The  Bishops  are 
seeking  to  introduce  their  own  canon  law,  and  are  ready,  in 
order  to  accomplish  it,  to  minister  to  the  passions  and  vices 
of  the  impulsive  Barons-  But  the  appeal  is  vain.  In  terms 
which  could  not  be  mistaken,  and  in  words  which  will  be 
read  with  admiration  in  after  days,  they  tell  those  ambitious 
churchmen,  *'nolumus  leges  Angliae  mutare,"  and  England 
and  her  institutions  are  English  still. 
8 


18 

I  pass  over  another  period  of  four  hundred  years — A  long 
and  severe  struggle  has  been  going  on,  the  anathema  of  the 
Pope,  and  the  thunder  of  the  Vatican  have  lost  their  terror. 
Interdict  and  Excommunication  can  no  longer  clothe  a 
people  in  sack-cloth.  And  the  prestige  of  royalty  itself 
has  ceased  to  dazzle  the  eye  of  a  fickle  multitude.  A  Ple- 
bian  Parliament  has  laid  sacreligious  hands  upon  the  Lord's 
anointed. 

But  Law  has  been,  during  all  this  time,  silently  gaining 
strength  and  consistency  in  the  kingdom,  and  the  people  are 
beginning  to  learn  that  without  rules  to  guide  and  check 
their  rulers,  the  rights  of  the  citizen  can  never  be  secure. 

And  when,  at  last,  that  feeling  of  an  Englishman's  Loy- 
alty, which  had  been  cherished  by  the  teachings  of  a  thou- 
sand years,  triumphed  over  the  party  of  freedom  and  fanat- 
icism. Liberty  was  found  asserting  her  claims  in  behalf  of 
private  right,  and  personal  security  against  power  and  pre- 
scriptive wrong.  At  one  blow.  Chivalry  and  Knight  service, 
under  which  the  tenant  of  every  manor  in  England  had 
been  groaning  for  six  hundred  years,  were  laid  prostrate, 
while  that  single  engine  of  magic  power,  the  Habeas  Corpus 
was  placed  within  the  reach  of  the  humblest  citizen,  and  at 
its  touch  the  bars  and  bolts  of  the  deepest  dungeon  gave 
way,  and  the  fetters  of  the  oppressor  fell  broken  from  the 
limbs  of  his  victim. 

As  we  come  down  from  this  eventful  period,  our  pathway 
grows  luminous  and  clear  in   the  light  of  Judicial  learning. 

The  struggle  between  prerogative  and  the  people,  between 
the  crown  and  the  priesthood,  has  passed  and  is  passing 
away,  while  the  cumbrous  frame  work  of  antiquated  iorms 
is  giving  place,  in  the  study  of  the  jurist  and  the  statesman, 
to  the  vitalizing  principles  of  social  advancement  and  indi- 
vidual right.  Commerce  and  Trade  are  fixing  more  firmly 
their  marts  in  the  growing  cities  of  the  kingdom,  and  thrift 
is  rewarding  the  enterprise  of  toiling  industry. 

The  Common  Law,  in  the  mean  time,  has  kept  pace  with 


It) 

the  changes  that  are  thus  going  on,  and  has  expanded  to 
meet  the  unaccustomed  wants  of  a  community,  no  longer 
confined  to  the  culture  of  the  soil. 

Under  the  guidance  of  her  great  masters,  her  Holts,  her 
Blackstones  and  her  Mansfields,  she  has  added  to  her  prim- 
itive elements,  what  she  has  gleaned  from  the  systems  of 
continental  Europe,  and  especially  from  the  great  store  house 
of  Eoman  Jurisprudence,  the  elements  of  symmetry  and 
consistency  which  adapted  to  the  condition  of  a  commercial 
people,  the  rugged  relics  of  feudalism  and  the  business  of 
arms  and  agriculture  which  still  give  character  to  her  laws, 
and  form  the  basis  of  her  constitution. 

The  heretofore  rival  systems  of  law  and  equity,  have 
learned  how  to  blend  and  harmonize  with  each  other,  under 
the  administration  of  the  Hardwickes  and  Camdens  of  the 
time,  till  a  system  of  Jurisprudence  has  grown  up  and  be- 
come incorporated  into  the  constitution  of  the  government, 
surpassing  that  of  Kome  in  the  brightest  days  of  her  glory. 

Fifty  years  more  in  the  history  of  the  English  law,  and 
we  find  ourselves  at  the  commencement  of  the  period  to 
which  I  am  liinited  in  what  I  am  to  say  this  evening.  Yet 
brief  as  is  this  little  space  on  the  great  chart  of  English 
history,  I  am  greatly  misled  or  we  shall  find  that  more  has 
been  accomplished  in  changing  some  departments  of  the 
law,  and  in  fitting  and  adapting  the  great  body  of  its  prin- 
ciples to  the  practical  wants  of  the  community,  than  had 
been  eflFected  in  either,  if  not  all  the  antecedent  periods  of 
which  1  have  spoken. 

Those  periods  had  been  either  too  dead  for  action,  or  too 
full  of  struggle,  as  it  were,  for  life  itself,  to  allow  the  action 
of  great  minds,  such  only  as  can  work  out  great  problems 
of  reform,  in  a  field  so  uninviting  as  the  details  of  admin- 
istering private  justice.  The  public  mind  was  too  much 
engrossed  to  heed  the  absurdities  and  inconsistencies  which 
deformed  the  patch-work  systems  of  local  customs,  ancient 
usages,  and  statute  expedients,  which  made  up  so  much  of 
the  existing  body  of  her  municipal  institutions. 


20 

The  first  and  earliest  of  those  periods  can  hardly  be  said 
to  belong  to  the  historic  age  of  the  lavf. 

The  elements  of  society  were  being  shaped  into  the  form 
and  consistency  of  the  state.  But  the  extent  to  which  the 
masses  had  rights  to  be  protected,  or,  that  they  should  be 
provided  with  remedies  for  private  wrongs,  beyond  some- 
thing like  a  domestic  police,  seems  to  have  entered  but 
feebly  into  the  spirit  of  its  rulers  or  its  laws. 

In  the  next  era,  we  see  little  more  than  a  long,  doubtful, 
three-sided  struggle  between  the  Crown,  the  Barons,  and 
the  Church,  in  whose  alternate  successes,  the  people  came  in 
for  a  meagre  share  only  of  whatever  was  gained  by  either 
side.  A  strong  national  feeling  was  growing  up  among 
them,  it  is  true,  but  it  was,  after  all,  a  period  of  struggle 
between  masters,  in  which  the  people  were  chiefly  passive 
and  their  rights  unheeded. 

Nor  was  it  till  the  spirit  of  inquiry  which  the  Eeforma- 
tion  awakened,  had  infused  life  and  energy  into  the  torpid 
action  of  the  popular  mind,  that  the  great  third  estate — the 
Commons  of  England — learned  how  to  measure  the  power 
they  afterwards  wielded. 

It  would  be  pleasant  to  pause  in  this  rapid  review,  on 
what  was  achieved  for  the  cause  of  popular  right  during 
the  Commonwealth  and  at  the  Restoration,  and  especially 
in  the  so-called  Revolution  of  1688,  when  the  hallowed 
sanctity  of  royal  prerogative  gave  way  before  the  storm  of 
popular  indignation.  It  would  be  pleasant  to  trace  how  the 
learning  and  independence  of  Coke,  the  profound  sagacity  of 
Bacon,  the  mild  virtues  and  uncompromising  intpgrity  of 
Hale,  and  the  varied  labors  of  the  patriotic,  and  upright 
Somers,  became  inwrought  into  the  science  of  the  Common 
law,  while  Courts  and  Juries  were  gaining  that  independ- 
ence which  was  at  last  guarantied  to  the  Judges  of  England, 
by  the  act  of  William  3d.  And  it  would  be  no  less  inter- 
esting to  trace  how  questions  of  personal  rights,  and  rights 
of  property,  at  last,  became  the  engrossing  business  of  the 


21 

courts,  in  place  of  what  should  be  the  limits  of  prerogative, 
the  jurisdiction  of  rival  courts,  or  by  what  means  the  power 
of  a  papal  hierarchy  should  be  disarmed  of  its  terror. 

It  should  be  borne  in  mind  that  the  commercial  spirit  of 
the  last  century  was  engrafted  upon  the  landed  interests 
of  England,  for  the  regulation  and  preservation  of  which 
so  much  of  the  Common  Law  had  come  into  existence.  And 
the  facility  with  which  these  were  blended  into  a  common 
system,  and  administered  by  the  same  courts,  is  but  another 
illustration  of  the  wonderful  adaptation  of  that  Common 
Law,  to  the  wants  and  condition  of  a  nation  made  up  of 
men  in  all  the  walks  and  employments  of  life. 

When,  therefore,  the  attention  of  the  leading  minds  in 
the  kingdom  had  been  withdrawn  from  the  political  excite- 
ments, and  the  almost  continuous  wars  in  which  the  nation 
had  been  ennraged  for  more  than  a  o-eneration,  it  is  not  sur- 
prising  that  it  should  have  been  directed  to  the  incongruous 
materials  of  which  the  Common  Law  was  composed, — the 
customs  and  forms  of  the  days  of  the  B[enr3's  and  the  Ed- 
wards registered  upon  the  same  page  with  the  broad  cos- 
mopolitan jurisprudence  of  an  era  of  arts,  and  commerce, 
and  navigation. 

Among  these  stand  prominently  the  names  of  Eomilly 
in  the  department  of  criminal  jurisprudence,  and  of  Brougham 
in  the  various  other  departments  of  the  law,  as  the  reform- 
ers of  the  present  century. 

Those  who  are  familiar  with  the  changes  which  have  ac- 
tually been  accomplished  in  England  during  the  last  twenty- 
five  years,  will  be  ready  to  accord  to  it  the  character  of  the 
great  age  of  English  legal  and  judicial  Eeform. 

Indeed,  so  rapid  and  important  have  those  changes  been, 
that  it  was  stated  by  a  writer  in  Blackwood,  that  when,  re- 
cently, one  of  the  leading  lawyers  at  the  Queen's  Bench 
proposed  to  republish  Blackstone  with  corrections  and  addi- 
tions that  should  adapt  the  work  to  the  present  state  of  the 
law,  it  was  found   that,  with   the  exception   of  the  first  vol- 


22 

ume,  the  identity  of  the  work  would  be  destroyed,  and  the 
proposal  was  abandoned  after  the  publication  of  a  single 
volume. 

Neither  good  taste  nor  your  patience  would  admit  of  my 
dwelling  upon  these  at  large,  and  I  can  therefore  name  only 
a  few.  Among  these,  Fines  and  Kecoveries,  the  long  toler- 
ated farce  of  feigned  issues,  fictitious  parties  and  false  rec- 
ords in  a  grave  court  of  Justice,  are  forever  abolished. 
Conveyances  of  land  have  been  stripped  of  their  useless 
verbage,  and  rendered  simple  and  intelligible.  The  mystic 
subtilties  of  lineal  and  collateral  warranties,  no  longer  puz- 
zle the  brain  of  the  lawyer.  The  forms  of  more  than  fifty 
actions  at  the  common  law  have  been  expunged.  Volumes 
devoted  to  points  as  nice  as  the  line  between  the  north  and 
northeast  side  of  a  hair,  upon  the  interest  of  witnesses, 
have  been  rendered  pointless  by  opening  the  witness  stand 
to  the  very  parties  themselves.  So  far  has  this  measure  of 
reform  been  carried,  that  the  very  bones  of  Fitzherbert,  and 
Saunders,  and  Booth,  and  Kastal  must  have  stirred  in  their 
graves  as  the  sacreligious  hand  was  laid  upon  one  after  an- 
other of  the  beauties  and  romances  of  real  actions,  and  special 
pleading, — upon  the"  Qidhus"  and  the  "Post,"  the  " Ayel," 
and  the  " Besayil,"  the  "  Traverse,"  and  the  " giving  color," 
and  their  places  supplied  with  English  terms  and  English 
common  sense. 

Nor  was  this  accomplished  without  many  a  sigh  from  the 
living  old  school  conservatives  of  the  day.  When  at  last  it 
was  seriously  proposed  to  abolish  "  contingent  remainders," 
— the  very  poetry  of  legal  abstractions — one  of  this  class 
is  said  to  have  exclaimed.  "  abolish  contingent  remainders! 
Why  not  repeal  the  law  of  gravitation  ?" 

The  quaint  rubbish  that  had  gathered  around  the  body 
of  the  common  law,  in  the  progress  of  a  thousand  years, 
like  the  sea  weed  and  barnacles  that  grow  and  cling  to  the 
bottom  of  a  noble  frigate,  was  scraped  off  by  the  hand  of 
reform,  till  courts  and  the  popular  mind  have  begun  to  sym- 


23 

patliize  with  each  other  in  the  new  revelation,  that  the  ends 
of  justice  had  better  be  sought  for,  than  its  antiquated  forms 
and  machinery  preserved. 

When  we  consider  what  has  been  accomplished  in  England 
since  1828,  when  Lord  Brougham  made  his  first  great  speech 
upon  the  necessity  of  legal  reform,  we  shall  find  that  it  lias 
not  been  limited  to  matters  of  form  and  detail  alone.  It 
has  pervaded  the  apirit  of  English  Jurisprudence,  embracing 
alike  the  interests  of  commerce  and  the  arts,  while  it  has 
moulded  and  fitted  these  to  the  prescriptive  rights  of  birth, 
and  the  rents  and  burdens  of  the  tenantry  of  the  soil. 

It  is  a  green  and  vigorous  life  springing  out  of  and  sus- 
tained by  the  firm  old  buttresses  which  were  reared  by  Titan 
hands  away  back  in  the  obscurity  of  ages. 

Around  the  walls  of  that  old  Abby — old  almost  as  the 
Common  Law  itself- — within  whose  aisles,  the  pc^rtrait  statue 
of  Lord  Mansfield  holds  an  honored  place  among  monu- 
ments of  kings  and  nobles,  of  statesmen  and  poets,  and 
heroes,  the  green  and  glossy  ivy  has  twined  itself  into  a 
shroud  of  living  verdure.  But  there  is  a  principle  in  its 
very  growth  that  endangers  the  stout  old  fabric  to  which  it 
clings.  The  fibres  and  tendrils  of  its  roots  searcli  out  every 
softening  and  decaying  particle,  every  crack  and  scale  in 
the  stone  work  of  which  it  is  composed,  and  with  almost 
magic  power  loosen  and  eat  out  the  very  walls  themselves, 
so  silently,  yet  so  irresistibly,  that  new  materials  are  con- 
stantly being  supplied  to  preserve  it  from  a  slow  but  certain 
decay. 

Such  is  the  care  and  skill,  the  wisdom  and  foresight,  which 
are  perpetually  demanded  in  an  age  of  change,  and  a  vig- 
orous parasitacal  growth  to  preserve  that  venerable  fabric 
of  the  Common  Law,  in  which  are  found  so  many  noble 
monuments  of  past  ages,  and  such  rich  treasures  of  consti- 
tutional liberty  and  personal  right. 

It  is  a  matter  of  state,  and  even  national  pride,  that 
while  the  mother  country  is  striving  to  adapt  her  laws,  in 


24 

respect  to  personal  rights,  and  her  forms  of  attaining  private 
JLisfcice,  to  the  wants  of  her  citizens,  she  has,  perhaps  un- 
consciously, copied  so  largely  from  the  simple  laws  and  cus- 
toms of  these,  her  off-shoot  republics. 

AVhen,  therefore,  we  turn  to  the  records  of  our  own  com- 
monwealth, during  the  same  period  to  which  I  am  limited, 
we  may  indulge  something  like  a  feeling  of  gratified  self- 
love  to  see  how  little  occasion  there  has  been  for  anything 
like  a  radical  reform  here. 

That  we  have  seen  changes  it  is  true,  hut  profound  as  is 
presumed  to  be  the  wisdom  of  our  legislatures,  it  may,  in 
the  end,  be  discovered  that  even  legislative  change  is  not 
always  improvement  or  reform. 

And,  if  T  might  look  abroad  for  illustration,  I  might  ven- 
ture to  doubt  the  successful  working  of  a  system  which 
makes  the  popular  voice  the  criterion  of  judicial  fitness  for 
office. 

It  will  be  long,  I  fear,  before  we  shall  see  a  Kent,  or  a 
Livingston,  or  a  Spencer,  rising  out  of  that  bubbling  cauldron 
whose  ingredients  are  to  be  supplied  from  time  to  time  by 
the  popular  passions  of  Whigs  or  Kepublicans,  of  Hard 
shells  and  Soft  shells,  of  Know  nothings  and  Know  some- 
things, as  they  one  after  the  other  snatch  at  the  spoils  that 
feed  their  patriotism. 

But  without  anticipating  what  are  to  be  the  fruits  of  re- 
form here,  let  me  pay  at  least  this  tribute  to  the  present 
and  the  past. 

For  many  years  the  business  associations  of  my  life  have 
been  with  the  courts  of  Massachusetts.  That  feeling  of 
respect,  almost  of  awe,  with  which  I  first  looked  upon  the 
venerable  men  who  then  graced  these  seats  of  justice,  has 
hardly  lost  the  freshness  of  association  by  familiarity. 

Of  the  changes  that  have  taken  place  in  the  incumbents 
of  the  highest  of  these,  it  may  not  be  delicate  for  me  to 
spenk  individually  on  this  occasion.  But  while  I  speak  of 
the  past,  in  paying  a  humble,  but  just  tribute  to  the  courts 


26 

of  onr  own  commonwealth,  I  miglit  extend  my  reTnarks  to 
other  courts,  state  as  well  as  national,  whose  presence  and 
learnino;  I  have  heen  permitted  to  witness. 

The  feelings  of  veneration  with  which  an  American  Law- 
yer first  enters  the  courts  of  Westminster  Hall,  are  partly 
traditionary,  and  partly  the  result  of  the  associations  and 
circumstances  by  which  he  finds  himself  surrounded. 

Those  who  have  read,  and  who  has  not?  the  sketch  of 
Warren  Hastings,  by  Maccauly,  will  at  once  recall  his  magni- 
ficent description  of  the  scene  of  the  trial  of  his  impeachment. 

That  glorious  old  Hall,  built  by  William  Eufus,  the  scene 
of  so  many  of  the  great  events  in  English  History,  two 
hundred  and  seventy  feet  in  length,  and  ninety  in  height, 
without  a  column  or  pillar,  or  any  thing  to  break  the  eflect 
of  its  imposing  gothic  proportions,  serves  as  a  vestibule  to 
the  respective  apartments,  in  which  these  courts  are  held. 

But  for  the  mind,  already  excited  by  the  recollection  of 
events  connected  with  the  history  of  the  hall,  through 
which  he  has  just  passed,  there  is  nothing  to  awaken  an 
emotion  in  the  style  or  magnitude  or  decorations  of  the 
pent  up  quarters  into  which  these  courts  are  crowded. 

He  is,  however,  any  thing  but  to  be  envied,  who  can  stand 
in  the  conscious  presence  where  Coke,  and  Hale,  and  Mans- 
field, and  Ellenboro  have  sat  in  judgment,  and  Dunning, 
and  Wedderburn,  and  Erskine,  and  Follet  have  pleaded, 
without  feeling  awed  by  the  very  genius  of  the  place. 

Pardon  the  seeming  egotism,  if  I  say,  it  was  the  first 
object  I  sought  in  that  vast  metropolis,  and  the  spot  to 
which  I  directed  my  daily  walk,  with  feelings  like  those  of 
a  pilgrim  at  the  shrine  of  his  devotion. 

I  looked  upon  that  array  of  Judges  in  their  robes  of  office, 
and  I  heard  them  addressed  as  "  Your  Lordships  "  by  titled 
Barristers,  and  Crown  officers  amono-  the  leadino-  men  in 
Parliament,  with  a  profound  respect  that  was  not  all  as- 
sumed. I  saw  members  of  these  courts  presiding  over  trials 
at  Nisi  Prius,  in  causes  which  enlisted  some  of  the  first  tal- 
4 


26 

ent  in  the  land.  And  I  felt  more  than  I  could  utter,  as  I 
stood  within  those  precincts,  where  the  associations  of  the 
past  mingled  with  the  emotions  which  novelty  and  the  im- 
posing dignity  of  the  scene  could  not  fail  to  awaken. 

But  when  I  came  to  analyze  this  spectacle,  to  lay  aside 
for  a  moment  the  adventitious  decorations  and  historic  asso- 
ciations— to  regard  only  the  men  of  whom  the  bench  was 
composed,  grave,  learned  and  reverend  as  they  were,  and  to 
listen  to  their  occasional  remarks,  and  their  more  elaborate 
opinions,  it  seemed  to  me,  that  for  true  dignity,  high  judi- 
cial bearing,  quick  apprehension,  patient  attention,  and  seem- 
ing impartiality,  we  need  not  go  to  Westminster  Hall  for 
better  models  than  we  may  find  at  home. 

Without  undertaking  to  compare  the  present  condition  of 
the  Bar  of  Massachusetts,  with  what  it  once  was,  it  is  safe 
to  affirm  that  a  system  of  educational  training,  of  prac- 
tice and  of  professional  intercourse  and  deportment,  which 
reared  and  fitted  the  men  who  have  honored  these  seats  of 
Justice,  should  be  approached  with  some  distrust,  at  least,  by 
him  who  should  seek  to  revolutionize  or  reform  it. 

And  yet,  the  attempt  to  do  this  has  been  ruthlessly  made 
more  than  once,  within  the  recollection  of  some  of  us,  and  a 
radical  change  has  been  thereby  wrought  in  the  constitution 
and  preparation  for  the  Bar.  Instead  of  the  period  of  three 
or  five  years  novitiate,  which  was  once  required  before  enter- 
ing the  outer  courts  of  the  sanctuary  of  the  profession,  and 
tarrying  in  that  middle  ground,  between  hope  and  fruition, 
for  two  years,  and  yet  au other  two  years  before  donning  the 
robes,  and  title,  and  privileges  of  a  "  Counsellor,"  he  now 
starts  "  from  the  rough,"  and  in  two  short  years,  by  the 
polishing  process  of  what  goes  by  the  name  of  an  "  exami- 
nation," comes  out  the  fit  companion  and  associate  of  the 
very  sages  of  the  law. 

And  what  must  strike  the  uninitiated  as  something  like 
a  solecism,  the  more  books  there  are  to  read,  the  less  is  the 
time  necessary  for   the   task.     The  more  the  relations  of 


27 

business  and  society  become  multiplied  and  complicated,  the 
more  quickly  are  tliey  mastered,  and  the  higher  the  de- 
mands for  scholarship,  learning  and  mental  discipline  in 
the  profession,  the  less  the  occasion  to  acquire  either,  before 
entering  it,  and  claiming  its  honors  and  its  rewards. 

We  witness  as  the  fruits  of  one  branch  of  this  reform, 
the  scattered  and  uncared  for  county  libraries  of  which  the 
excise,  cheerfully  contributed  by  the  older  members  of  the 
bar,  had  laid  a  creditable  foundation.  But  I  leave  the 
memory  of  such  a  reformer  to  the  blessings  of  him,  who, 
after  seeking  in  vain  in  the  place  where  it  should  be,  the 
volume,  always  the  missing  one,  which  he  most  needs,  plods 
back  to  his  office  and  recalls  the  cause  of  his  disappointment 
and  his  fruitless  search. 

And  yet,  there  have  been  changes  during  this  period  in 
some  of  the  details  of  our  legal  system,  which  many  were 
disposed  to  regard  as  veritable  reforms.  All  of  us  have 
read  of  the  beauties  and  charms  of  special  pleading,  which 
drew  forth  from  my  Lord  Coke,  among  others,  such  high 
and  frequent  eulogiums.  With  him,  words  were,  literally, 
things,  and  "  placitum  a  placendo," — to  plead  well  and  to 
please  well,  were,  in  his  mind,  an  obvious  synonym. 

But  to  a  layman  who  has  never  mastered  this  refined 
system  of  the  keenest  logic,  I  fear  it  would  be  useless,  if  I 
were  able,  to  describe  its  beauty  and  its  symmetry,  or  to  show 
the  use  of  pleas,  and  rejoinders,  and  surrejoinders,  and  re- 
butters, and  traverses,  and  (1(  raurrers,  which  the  skillful 
players  in  the  legal  game  of  chess,  play  out  like  pawns  on 
the  chess  board,  before  they  bring  forward  the  pieces  by 
which  they  are  eventually  to  win. 

When  I  think  of  the  power  of  old  associations,  and  re- 
member that  our  meeting  is  not  limited  to  those  of  our 
own  number,  I  know  not  how  far  it  is  safe  to  confess  the 
part  which  this  Bar  took  in  the  blow  that  struck  down  that 
ancient  system.  A  report  prepared  by  their  direction,  upon 
the  subjecc,  is  still  extant,  which  found  its  way  into  the 


28 

newspapers  of  the  clay,  and  was  nearly  coincident  with  the 
act  of  the  legislature  of  1836,  which  declared  that  "in 
every  civil  action  hereafter  to  be  tried — all  matters  of  law 
or  fact  in  defence  of  such  action,  may  be  given  in  evidence 
under  the  general  issue,  and  no  other  plea  in  bar  shall  be 
pleaded." 

But  whatever  were  the  motives  for  such  a  reform,  whether 
because  its  advocates  knew  too  much  or  too  little,  to  stand 
by  a  system  which  had  engaged  the  keenest  minds  and 
sharpest  intellects  at  the  English  Bar,  it  had,  at  least,  the 
apology  of  being  designed  to  simplify  and  render  intelligi- 
ble the  proceedings  of  our  courts,  and  to  do  something  to 
save,  if  possible,  a  sacrifice  of  justice  to  the  mysteries  of 
technicality. 

But  it  is  true,  that  even  after  this,  the  language  of  law 
papers  was  not  reduced  to  the  homely  vernacular  of  the 
nursery  or  the  work  shop,  and  a  man  was,  sometimes,  shocked 
to  learn  that  he  had  been  guilty  of  "  trover  and  conversion  " 
in  claiming  property  that  he  owned,  or  to  see  some  hasty 
expressi<m  of  contempt  for  a  blackguard,  spread  out  into  a 
volume  by  colloquia  and  innuendos,  and  exaggerated  exple- 
tives, under  the  verbiage  of  which,  the  charge  itself,  like 
Falstaff  in  the  buck  basket,  was  well  nigh  smothered  by 
the  foul  and  offensive  coverings  beneath  which  it  was  brought 
into  court. 

But,  after  all,  these  were  harmless  excrescences  upon  a 
system  which  had  become  venerable  by  age,  and  respectable 
by  the  ends  at  which  it  aimed,  and  the  results  which  it  or- 
dinarily attained.  And  when,  therefore,  it  was  proposed  to 
efface  old  lines,  and  simplify  what  in  tlie  nature  of  things 
must  be  more  or  less  complex,  by  merely  giving  it  a  new 
name,  there  were  those  who  innocently  doubted  whether 
there  was  much  of  progress  in  such  a  reform. 

There  are  those  who,  even  now,  can  no  more  readily  dis- 
cern the  subject  of  a  suitor's  complaint,  because  he  is  told 
it  is  a  "  tort,"  than  if  it  had  been  spoken  of  as  "  Trespass," 


29 

or  "Case,"  in  the  brief,  terse,  customary  language  in  -wliieh, 
until  lately,  the  Plaintiff  told  the  tale  of  the  wrongs  for 
which  he  sought  redress. 

One  of  the  prominent  events  in  the  legal  history  of  Mas- 
sachusetts during  the  period  of  which  I  am  speaking,  was 
the  revision  of  her  statutes. 

The  arduous  and  responsible  duty  of  rendering  a  mass 
of  intricate  and  often  conflicting  legislation,  simple  and  in- 
telligible, was  confided  to  a  commission  whose  character  and 
capacity  were  a  guaranty  that  the  work  should  be  faithfully 
and  ably  dene. 

But  thoroughly,  and  as  was  fondly  believed,  completely, 
as  this  revision  was  accomplished,  the  love  of  change,  and 
spirit  of  innovation,  prompted  by  the  new  and  growing 
wants  of  a  community  with  such  varied  interests,  had  swelled 
to  a  volume  of  near  a  thousand  pages^  and  demanded  a  new 
revision,  even  while  one  of  the  former  commissions  yet  sur- 
vived. That  work  is  in  able  hands,'"'  and  if  it  shall  be  accom- 
plished as  successfully  as  the  one  which  it  is  to  supersede, 
posterity  will  owe  a  debt  of  gratitude  to  their  labors,  like 
that  which  it  has  paid  to  the  memory  of  tho&e  who  preceded 
them  in  that  important  field. 

The  last  of  that  number  has  just  gone  down  to  an  hon- 
ored grave  in  a  ripe  old  age,  bearing  with  him  the  veneration 
and  respect  of  an  entire  community. 

The  place  upon  the  bench  has  long  since  been  filled  which 
he  graced  and  honored  in  the  vigor  of  his  manhood,  and 
the  world  will  go  on  as  if  he  had  never  taken  a  prominent 
part  in  its  affairs.  But  in  giving  an  outline  of  the  leoal 
and  judicial  history  of  Massacliusetts  for  the  last  quarter  of 
a  century,  the  record  would  be  incomplete  that  did  not  pre- 
sent, prominently,  among  those  whose  character  and  labors 
as  jurists  have  distinguished  it,  the  name  of  CnAiiLES 
Jackson. 

"•'  The  commission  consists  of  Hon.  Judge  Parker,  of  the  Dane  Law  School, 
Hon.  Mr.  Richmond  of  Adams,  and  Hon.  Judge  Richardson,  of  Lowell. 


30 

The  truest  annals,  perhaps,  of  the  progress  of  the  law  are 
to  be  found  in  the  reported  decisions  of  our  courts. 

So  far  as  our  own  Commonwealth  is  concerned,  though 
one  of  the  earliest  to  make  provision  for  their  publication, 
the  work  is  of  a  comparatively  recent  date. 

The  earliest  volume  of  our  reports  contains  the  decisions 
of  the  year  1804.  Sixty-two  more  volumes  have  been  pub- 
lished since  that  time,  thirty-five  of  which  have  been  given 
to  the  public,  within  the  period  of  which  I  am  speaking, 
and  materials  for  other  volumes  are  nearly  or  quite  ready 
for  the  press. 

Of  the  extent,  variety  and  accuracy  of  the  learning  they 
contain,  the  vast  amount  of  labor  and  untiring  industry 
they  evince,  and  of  the  research  and  scope  of  thought  neces- 
sary to  their  production,  I  need  not,  even  if  I  had  time, 
speak  at  large  before  such  an  audience. 

If  the  legislation  of  a  state  furnishes  one  of  the  best 
means  of  studying  its  political  history,  the  reported  decisions 
of  its  courts  serve  as,  perhaps,  a  scarcely  less  accurate  crite- 
rion of  the  slow,  impalpable,  yet  certain  progress  which  its 
unwritten  law  is  making,  to  keep  pace  with  the  sentiments, 
and  wants,  and  character  of  its  people.  Principles  which  at 
one  period  are  little  more  than  hinted  at,  or  shadowed  forth 
with  hesitation  by  its  judges,  become,  in  time,  elementary  in 
their  character,  and  their  soundness  no  one  presumes  to 
question. 

These  may  not  partake  of  the  fluctuation  of  public  sen- 
timent, but  I  greatly  mistake,  or  we  shall  perceive  as  we 
glance  at  the  contents  of  these  successive  volumes,  that 
there  are  classes  of  topics  prevalent  at  one  time,  which 
nearly  subside  at  others,  and  that  great  issues  which  engage 
the  public  attention  at  one  period,  are  scarcely  heard  of  at 
another. 

That  these  currents  in  the  popular  mind  should  influence, 
often  unconsciously,  the  judicial  mind  of  the  state,  is  but 
saying  what  so  many  believe,  that  those  who  are  to  act  as 


'^1 
ol 

interpreters  of  the  law,  should  take  part  in  the  actual  ad- 
ministration of  it.  Shut  up  the  wisest  man  in  a  cloister, 
and  surround  him  only  with  the  records  of  the  past,  and 
let  no  whisper  of  what  is  passing  in  the  great  world  around 
him,  reach  his  ear,  and  though  you  make  him  as  learned 
and  impartial  as  Justice  herself,  you  make  him  at  hest  hiit 
a  monk  in  ermine. 

It  has  seemed  to  me  that  there  was  something  like  a 
public  pulse  in  the  law,  which  accurate  observers,  situated 
as  our  courts  are,  often  feel  without  knowing  how  its  move- 
ments reach  their  consciousness,  and  if  it  acts  upon  courts 
in  modifying  old  dogmas,  or  infusing  new  elements  of  life 
into  the  body  of  our  jui'isprudence,  it  is,  in  its  turn,  acted 
upon  by  the  direction  it  receives  from  the  calm  judgment, 
the  trained  sagacity,  and  authoritative  opinions  of  their 
Judges. 

In  view,  therefore,  of  what  we  have  read  of  the  changes 
through  which  our  law  is  passing,  while  many  a  rough,  ugly 
excrescence  has  been  removed,  that  marred  its  symmetry  and 
beauty,  we  find  new  blood  infused  into  its  system,  and  new 
vigor  vitalizing  its  action. 

There  are  one  or  two  legislative  reforms,  which  I  ought 
not  to  pass  over  in  silence. 

Much  as  I  idolize  the  stability  and  consistency  of  popular 
favor,  I  am  obliged  to  confess,  in  regard  to  one  of  these  re- 
forms, that  from  early  prejudice,  or  other  infirmity  of  judg- 
ment, I  have  at  times  supposed  that  the  Judges  of  our  Su- 
preme Courts,  taken  collectively,  were  better  able  to  deter- 
mine the  constitutionality  of  a  law,  than  a  man  drawn  for 
the  first  time  from  the  farm,  or  the  shop,  to  serve  on  the 
panel  of  a  Common  Pleas  Jury. 

But  as  our  law  makers  of  1855  thought  otherwise,  I  am 
bound  to  yield  this  traditionary  impression  to  their  superior 
wisdom,  and  set  it  down  to  the  progress  of  the  last  quarter 
of  a  century,  unless  the  example  of  one  branch  of  the  pres- 
ent legislature  should  tend  to  restore  some  of  the  old  fash- 
ioned notions  of  our  fathers. 


32 

As  we  cast  our  eyes  along  the  history  of  our  race,  it  is 
refreshing  to  see  the  part  which  chivalry  has  taken  in  im- 
proving the  social  and  moral  condition  of  mankind. 

Fortunately,  the  spirit  is  not  dead,  and  most  fortunately, 
it  still  delights  in  tilting  its  lance  in  the  cause  of  the  op- 
pressed of  the  fairer,  I  hardly  dare  say,  weaker  sex. 

And  that,  too,  has  been  at  work  even  in  the  field  of  legal 
reform. 

We  all  remember  what  a  cry,  as  of  captive  maidens,  and 
enslaved  matrons,  went  up  from  convention  after  convention 
a  few  years  since. 

It  could  not  fail  to  arouse  the  spirit  of  chivalry,  sometimes 
dormant,  but  never  dead. 

It  was  found  that  the  affe  had  got  in  advance  of  such  old 
times,  as  "  I'emes  covert,''^  "  Marital  rights"  and  the  like. 
So  far  as  the  sexes  were  concerned,  "  Duties "  became  a 
noun  of  masculine  gender  alone.  Vf  hile  "  Rights  "  put  on 
the  feminine  garb,  or  at  least,  the  "  bloomer  "  part  of  it,  to 
be  seen  and  road  of  all  men. 

And  nobly  and  effectually  was  the  work  accomplished.  It 
has  relieved  young  men  from  temptation,  and  many  a  poor 
lawyer  who  might  have  sold  himself  for  a  certain  price,  pay- 
able in  lands  and  stocks,  will  be  put  upon  his  guard  in  mak- 
ing heart  investments  hereafter. 

It  may  be  no  serious  obstacle  in  the  way  of  love  and  ro- 
mance, but  when  he  remembers  that  all  that  a  woman  hath, 
at  the  time  of  her  marriage,  remains  "  her  sole  and  separate 
property,"  "  not  subject  to  the  disposal  of  her  husband," 
and  what  is  better,  not  "  liable  for  his  debts,"  he  may,  like 
a  class  of  modern  politicians,  be  led  to  calculate  the  "  value 
of  the  union." 

But  the  chief  glory  of  this  chivalrous  measure  consists  in 
the  singleness  into  which  marital  rights  have  resolved  them- 
selves. 

That  old  fashioned  community  of  interests,  a  community 
of  pursuits,  which  made  it  a  kind  of  pleasant  copartnership 


33 

to  earn  together  a  little  competency,  for  what  even  now  is 
common  property — their  children — has  become  absolute  by 
law. 

Now  the  married  woman,  happily  relieved  from  any  occa- 
sion of  being  another's  help  meet,  "may  carry  on,"  in  the  lan- 
guage of  the  Statute,  "  any  trade  or  business,  and  perforin 
any  labors  or  services,  on  her  own  sole  account,"  and  her  earn- 
ings shall  be  "  her  sole  and  separate  property."* 

This  is  the  last  chapter  in  the  history  of  legal  reform. 
What  is  to  be  the  next,  I  must  leave  for  my  successor  to 
record. 

But,  if  in  its  progress,  we  are  to  listen  upon  the  Sabbath 
to  the  devotions  of  some  St.  Agnes,  or,  upon  a  week  day,  to 
the  learning  and  eloquence  of  a  Portia  at  the  Bar,  or  a  No- 
vella of  Bologna  in  the  Law  Lecture  Boom,  or  see  sickness 
robbed  of  half  its  pain  and  most  of  its  terror,  by  the  dulcet 
tones  and  delicate  little  doses  with  which  beauty  shall  battle 
with  disease,  those  who  may  stand,  at  the  end  of  another 
quarter  of  a  century,  where  we  do  now,  may,  as  they  look 
back  upon  our  unfortunate  condition,  borrow  the  measure  of 
one  of  England's  poets,  if  they  do  not  his  language,  when 
they  exclaim,  as  they  doubtless  then  will, 

Law's  thorny  field  was  but  a  tangled  wild, 

Till  woman  tilled  it,  when  it  bloomed  and  smiled. 

When  I  turn  to  the  recollections  of  the  last  twenty-five 
years  which  are  awakened  by  the  history  of  our  own  Bar,  and 
our  own  County,  while  there  is  much  over  which  to  rejoice, 
there  is  not  a  little  over  which  an  old  man  may  almost  be 
justified  in  dropping  a  tear. 

Shall  I  speak  of  the  social  changes  in  the  habits  and  in- 
tercourse of  the  Bar,  which  have  grown  up  within  that  period? 

I  know  I  am  entering  upon  perilous  ground.  To  doubt 
that  we  live  in  an  age  of  progress,  to  hint  that  railroads 
and  telegraphs  are  not  of  unmingled  and  unmeasured  good 

'-Stat.  1856,  c.  304. 


34 

to  man,  or  to  dare  to  think,  much  more  to  say,  that  the  pres- 
ent does  not  outstrip  the  past  in  every  thing  that  goes  to 
make  up  life,  will  sound,  I  am  aware,  like  the  very  key  note 
of  "  Fogyism  "  itself. 

But  there  are  a  few,  sorry  am  I  they  are  so  few ;  who  can 
go  back  w^ith  me  to  our  courts,  our  "  court  weeks,"  and  our 
Bar  gatherings,  before  the  period  of  which  I  am  speaking. 

What  a  contrast  with  the  present  !  "Court  w^eek"  was  then 
literally  what  it  was  called,  instead  of  reaching  in  one  con- 
tinued session,  as  now,  from  the  earliest  harvest  home,  round 
to  the  latest  planting  season,  and  the  forty-one  days  of  term 
time  of  the  C.  C.  Pleas  in  1831,  grown  to  one  hundred  and 
forty- two  in  1854.  And  those  who  came  to  court,  did  so  to 
some  good  purpose.  It  was  for  the  business  and  relaxation 
of  a  week,  instead  of  whisking  in  upon  a  rail  in  the  morn- 
ing, to  look  at  the  list  on  the  clerk's  desk,  like  the  numbers 
in  the  managers'  report  of  an  old  fashioned  lottery  drawing, 
and  to  guess  how  many  weeks  it  will  be  before  he  must  go 
through  the  same  interesting  process  again,  and  then  home 
by  the  next  train  before  nightfall. 

Oh  the  "  dies  fasti !"  when,  within  the  charmed  circle  of 
the  Bar,  greetings  were  exchanged,  groups  were  gathered, 
and  dignity  unbent.  But  it  was  the  evenings,  those  "  nodes 
amhrosiance  "  of  court  weeks,  alas  !  with  those  who  enlivened 
them,  now  only  among  the  things  that  are  passed — that  told 
the  strongest  upon  the  life  of  the  lawyer  of  that  day. 

Could  the  parlors  of  the  two  or  three  boarding  houses 
where  they  congregated,  repeat  the  wit,  and  re-echo  the 
laugh,  and  tell  of  the  jokes  and  humor  in  which  even  grave 
judges  sometimes  shared,  after  the  duties  of  the  day  were 
over,  we  might,  as  they  did,  gather  up  a  store  of  pleasant 
memories  to  serve  as  bright  new  coinage,  for  the  small  change 
of  social  life  and  convivial  intercourse. 

And  why  should  I  speak,  unless  it  is  to  sigh  over  them,  of 
those  other  social  gatherings,  where  the  Muse  oft  times  sat 
down  with  us  at  the  festive  board,  and  the  best  of  fellows, 


35 

the  best  of  lawyers,  and  some  of  them,  afterwards,  the  best 
of  judges,  poured  forth  the  best  of  poems  and  the  best  of 
jokes  into  the  ears  of  the  best  and  kindliest  of  critics  ? 

Those  days  are  indeed  gone  by — "  Qualis  eram  non  sum." 
And  though  I  would  not  go  back  to  the  days  of  the  old  stage 
coaches,  and  the  one  horse  wagon,  as  the  means  of  reaching 
justice,  or  throw  a  scruple's  weight  in  the  way  of  Temper- 
ance, I  have  sometimes  thought  it  could  do  no  harm  if  we 
should,  sometimes,  come  together  as  if  we  were  really  social 
beings,  and  indulge,  if  no  further,  in  listening  to  the  tra- 
ditions of  days  when  at  the  firesides  of  Mrs.  Blake  and  Miss 
Stearns,  and  around  Stockwell's  well  spread  table,  there  was 
sparkling  of  wit  and  the  outgushing  of  warm  hearts  and 
cheerful  spirits. 

Pardon  this  local  allusion,  and  set  it  down  to  the  garrulity 
of  a  busy  memory  teeming  with  the  little  incidents  of  which 
so  much  of  humble  life  is  made  up. 

As  I  recal  the  history  of  the  last  twenty-five  years  of  this 
County,  I  cannot  forbear  alluding  to  the  condition  of  our 
County  buildings. 

The  ugly  old  stone  prison  that  stood  hard  by  here,  has 
disappeared.  The  inadequate  accommodations  furnished  by 
the  court  house  then  and  still  standing,  for  the  rapidly  in- 
creasing business  and  population  of  the  County,  have  been 
amply  supplied  by  the  structure  in  which  we  are  assembled. 
It  is  alike  a  monument  to  the  taste,  the  forecast,  and  the  in- 
dependence of  a  Board,  who,  though  dependent  upon  a  popu- 
lar vote  for  their  election,  did  not  hesitate  to  obey  the  call 
of  duty. 

They  acted  for  the  County  as  it  was,  as  it  is,  and,  may  we 
not  hope,  as  it  ivill  he,  for  a  century  to  come,  the  prosperous, 
thriving,  independent,  united  community,  which  no  true  son 
of  hers  ever  blushed  to  call  his  home,  or  failed  to  feel  that 
her  fame  and  her  honor  were  a  part  of  his  own  best  her- 
itage. 


36 

As  we  revert,  again,  to  the  record  of  our  Courts,  we  find 
at  the  commencement  of  the  period  to  which  I  am  limited, 
four  Judges  upon  the  Bench  of  the  Supreme  Court.* 

One  only  of  that  number — "  serus  in  coelum  redeat" — now 
remains  at  his  post  of  duty.  Two  sleep  among  the  honored 
dead.  Putnam,  the  able  commercial  lawyer  and  upright 
judge,  the  courteous  gentleman,  and  the  companion  of  ever 
ready  and  kindly  sympathies,  after  a  retirement  from  the 
bench  of  several  years,  was  the  first  to  pass  away. 

The  last  year  has  witnessed  the  departure  of  the  other,  f 
so  long  and  so  worthily  associated  with  the  first. 

A  few  months  since,  I  found  him,  of  an  evening,  sitting 
in  his  study,  and  with  an  eye  undimmed  by  age,  reading 
Plato,  to  ascertain,  as  he  said,  what  advances  had  been  made 
in  modern  times  in  the  science  of  morals  and  politics,  and 
how  much  the  world  was  indebted  for  its  present  condition, 
to  the  revelations  of  the  Christian  Keligion.  And  as  I 
thought  of  him  as  the  profound  lawyer  to  whose  eye  even 
the  subtlest  pages  of  the  black  letter  folio  were  luminous 
and  clear,  and  sat  and  listened  to  his  cheerful,  earnest  con- 
versation, in  which  the  simple  dignity  of  profound  thought, 
was  mingled  with  the  pleasant  recollections  of  the  past, 
and  the  hopeful  anticipations  of  the  future,  I  could  not  but 
envy  the  man  who  had  brought,  out  of  the  conflicts  of  so 
long  a  life,  so  rich  a  treasure  of  duties,  consciously  performed, 
of  esteem  and  affection  so  worthily  won,  and  of  reputation 
for  purity  and  uprightness  of  heart,  and  singleness  of  pur- 
pose, so  universally  accorded  to  him  as  a  judge,  which  gave 
grace  and  dignity  to  his  profound  learning  and  impartial 
judgment. 

Within  the  period  spoken  of,  nine  others  have  been  called 
to  fill  places  upon  that  Bench,  one  only  of  whom  has  gone 
to  his  reward.]:     And  long  may  it  be  ere  delicacy  towards 

■'  Vid  Appendix,  A. 
t  Judge  Wilde  died  June  22,  1855,  Vid  Appendix,  A. 
X  Judge  Hubbard  died  Dec.  24,  1847,  at  the  age  of  62. 


37 

the  living,  shall  no  longer  restrain  the  utterance  of  what 
feeling  might,  otherwise,  dictate. 

Of  the  four  judges''  of  the  then  Court  of  Common  Pleas, 
three  have  gone  to  join  the  generation  that  preceded  them. 
Chief  Justice  Ward  was  known  to  us  only  hy  the  reputation 
for  learning  and  integrity  which  he  had  acquired  in  other 
parts  of  the  Commonwealth.! 

Judge  Strong  was  one  of  our  own  numher.i  A  few  of  us 
remember  him  before  he  had  been  elevated  to  that  place, 
when  he  honorably  filled  a  seat  in  Congress,  and  was  called 
thence  to  a  vacancy  upon  the  Bench. 

With  a  good  legal  mind,  and  respectable  attainments  in 
his  profession,  he  brought  much  experience  in  the  practical 
affairs  of  life,  to  the  business  of  the  Court,  and  did  much 
to  elevate  and  sustain  its  character.  He  won  the  confidence 
of  all,  by  his  uprightness  as  a  judge,  and  the  diligence  and 
fidelity  with  which  he  performed  his  duties.  He  retired 
from  the  Bench  while  his  powers  were  unbroken,  but  found 
the  evening  of  his  days  clouded  by  infirmity  and  disease, 
with  which  he  struggled  without  complaint,  and  bore  up 
against  them  with  the  dignity  and  cheerfulness  of  a  good 
man. 

The  last  of  the  three  has  passed  away  from  the  shades  of 
of  retirement,  within  which  he  had  lived  for  many  years, 
within  the  last  few  months.j^ 

Though  wanting  many  of  the  qualities  of  a  perfect  judge, 

*  Vid  Appendix,  B. 

t  Ch.  J.  Ward  held  the  office  from  1821  till  1841;  He  died  Oct.  7,  1847,  at 
the  age  of  84. 

I  Judge  Strong  was  a  native  of  Amherst,  and  the  son  of  Hon.  Simeon 
Strong,  Judge  of  the  Supreme  Court.  He  was  graduated  at  Williams  College 
in  1798.  He  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  1803,  and  commenced  business  in 
Athol,  and  after  remaining  there  about  three  years  removed  to  Westminster. 
From  1812  to  1814  he  was  a  member  of  the  Senate,  and  again  in  1844.  In 
1818  he  was  appointed  Judge  of  C.  C.  Pleas,  and  retained  the  office  till  1843. 
He  removed  to  Leominster  after  his  appointment  to  the  Bench,  and  resided 
there  till  his  death  in  1850,  at  the  age  of  70. 

§  Hon.  Judge  Cummings,  who  died  March  30,  1855,  aged  69. 


38 

there  never  was  a  more  upright  and  honest  man,  or  a  more 
sincere  lover  of  truth  and  justice,  than  he.  What  he  lacked 
was  due  to  his  temperament  alone.  Every  one  felt  that  his 
instincts  were  all  right,  and  that  his  judgment  was  guided 
by  an  honest  purpose  and  high  attainments  in  learning. 

Never  suspecting  fraud  in  his  own  guileless  nature,  no  one 
could  be  a  more  uncompromising  foe  to  trick  or  chicanery 
when  once  detected.  The  sod  does  not  rest  on  a  kinder 
heart  than  that  which  once  animated   the  manly  form  of 

Judge  CUMMINGS. 

Of  the  others  who  have  been  members  of  this  Court  with- 
in our  period,  I  have  not  time  to  speak,  though  three  of 
their  number  have  been  added  to  the  starred  names  that  are 
so  rapidly  swelling  the  catalogue  of  the  eminent  men  that 
have  departed  from  our  midst.*  And  the  last  mail  brings 
the  sad  intellio-ence  of  another  vacant  seat  and  another 
stricken  household.  Sudden,  fearfully  sudden,  has  been  the 
blow  that  has  stricken  down  one  whom  we  had  fondly  hoped 
to  meet  here  this  evening,  and  turned  our  joy  into  sadness. 
Greater  and  more  brilliant  men  may  have  fallen,  but  a 
truer  heart,  a  more  upright  judge,  or  a  man  of  more  hon- 
orable feelings  or  guileless  life,  is  not  left  to  commemorate  or 
record  the  virtues  of  the  dead. 

The  Court  has,  from  various  causes,  been  prolific  in  names. 
Twenty-two  different  Judges  have  held  seats  upon  that  Bench 
within  the  last  twenty-five  years.  One  of  these  causes, 
happily  is,  in  part  at  least,  removed. 

As  I  contemplate  the  fact,  that  more  than  a  thousand 
million  of  dollars  of  the  wealth  of  the  citizens  of  this 
commonwealth,  owes  no  little  of  its  security  and  value  to  a 
wise  and  impartial  administration  of  her  laws,  I  think, 
with  anything   but   feelings  of  pride,  of  that  penny-wise 

'•■Ch.  .T.  Wells  died  June  23,  185i,  aged  63.  Judge  Ward  died  May  29, 
1848,  aged  39.  Judge  Colby  died  Feb.  22,  1853,  aged  44.  He  was  Dist- 
Atty.  of  the  Southern  District  after  his  resignation  of  the  place  of  Judge. 
Judge  Byington  had  accepted  our  invitation  and  was  ex^Decting  to  be  present 
on  the  occasion  of  this  address,  when  he  was  suddenly  stricken  down  by 
..lisease. 


89 

policy  which  has,  at  times,  ground  down  her  judges  to  rates 
of  compensation  below  what  some  of  her  private  corpora- 
tions pay  for  looking  after  the  running  of  their  rail  cars,  or 
the  speed  of  their  spinning  jennies. 

The  Attorney  and  Solicitor  General  of  twenty-five  years 
ago,''  have  passed  away.  Eminent  in  their  day,  they  were 
long  in  office,  and  formed  a  connecting  link  between  the 
class  of  lawyers  who  entered  the  Bar  soon  after  the  revolu- 
tion, and  our  own  times.  Belonging  to  no  particular  local- 
ity, their  history,  their  services,  and  their  reputation,  are 
rather  the  property  of  the  whole  Commonwealth,  than  the 
subjects  of  extended  notice  while  treating  of  a  single  County. 

Of  the  Judges  of  Probate,  four  have  held  office  within 
our  prescribed  period. |  With  the  presence  of  three  of  that 
number  we  are  favored  this  evening,  including  him  who 
presides  over  its  proceedings. 

The  otheri  lonp-  stood  as  a  kind  of  connecting"  link  between 

I  o  o 

the  modern  bar  and  the  ante-revolutionary  days,  many  of  whose 
actors  he  had  personally  known. 

After  having  held  the  place  of  County  Attorney,  he 
presided  for  more  than  an  entire  generation,  with  great 
approbation,  over  the  duties  of  a  Court  which  requires 
learning,  patience,  diligence,  and  a  ready  sympathy,  and  in 
1840,  at  the  ripe  age  of  eighty-two,  nearly  sixty  years  from 
his  admission  to  the  bar,  his  name,  like  an  old  familiar 
land-mark,  ceased  to  hold  its  accustomed  place  at  the  head 
of  the  lawyers  of  the  then  town  of  Worcester. 

Four,  during  that  period,  have  lield  the  place  of  District 
or  County  Attorney,  and  another  has  recently  been  added 
to  the  list.§  Of  these,  including  the  last,  four  belonged  to 
the  Bar  of  this  County. 

Of  one  of  these  it  may  not  be  improper  for  one  who 

*Hon.  Perez  Morton,  Attorney  General  and  Hon.  Daniel  Davis,  Solicitor 
General.  Mr.  Morton  was  Attorney  General  from  ISIO  to  1S32.  lie  died 
Oct.  14,  1837,  at  the  age  of  87,  in  Dorchester. 

f  Vid  x\ppendix,  C.  J  Judge  Paiue.  §  Vid  Appendix,  D. 


40 

learned  bj  experience  to  appreciate  his  efforts  in  that  office, 
to  say  that  it  was  sometimes  difficult  for  an  antagonist  to 
determine  whether  he  was  the  most  effectually  subdued  by 
his  adroitness  or  his  courtesy. 

Another,  though  in  brief  possession  of  the  office,  I  am 
unwilling  to  pass  over  in  silence,  though  he  was  scarcely 
known  beyond  the  limits  of  this  Bar/" 

He  came  into  the  profession  mature  in  years,  and  strong 
in  native  powers,  but  already  the  doomed  victim  of  disease. 
He  struggled  with  manly  resolution  and  unshrinking  forti- 
tude, against  a  malady  that  would  have  crushed  the  hopes 
and  spirits  of  an  inferior  nature,  and  won  for  himself,  as  a 
public  officer,  an  approljation  and  respect  which  harmonized 
with  the  esteem  in  which  he  was  held  as  a  companion  and 
a  friend. 

His  fate  was  but  a  new  illustration  of  the  bright  mark 
at  which  death  loves  to  aim  his  fatal  shaft. 

Passing  from  this  office  to  that  of  the  principal  Clerk  of 
the  Courts,  we  find  that  four  have  been  incumbents  of  the 
place.f  Here,  too,  I  may  not  properly  speak  of  but  one  of 
that  number. 

But  in  recalling  the  name  of  Kendall,  the  modest  worth, 
the  amiable  virtues,  the  scholarly  tastes,  and  the  unblem- 
ished purity  which  characterised  his  life,  at  once  rise  before 
the  mind. 

He  had  been  a  well  read  lawyer,  though  little  fitted,  by 
taste,  for  the  rougher  passages  of  the  profession. 

In  Congress  he  belonged  to  a  school  of  politicians — God 
grant  it  may  not  become  quite  obsolete — who,  if  they  spoke, 
said  what  they  meant,  and  voted  for  the  right  because  it 
was  the  right. 

He  had  doubtless  been  a  greater  man,  and  more  eminent 
in  his  profession,  had  he  felt  the  goadings  of  poverty,  or 

'■■  B.  F.  Newton. 
jHon.  Abijali  Bigelow,  Hon.  Jos.  G.  Kendall,  Charles  W.  Hartshorn  and 
Jos.  Rlasou,  Esquires. 


41 

the  calls  upon  a  husband,  or  a  father's  instincts  for  exertion. 
But  the  world  has  little  to  forgive  when  it  comes  to  take 
the  account  of  his  life,  and  sees  the  preponderance  of  the 
good  he  accomplished. 

Four  have  successively  had  in  charge  the  executive  duties 
of  the  County,  in  the  office  of  Sheriff, '■'  and  though  two  only 
of  these  were  originally  of  the  Bar,  their  connection  with 
the  Courts  calls  for  a  passing  notice. 

One  only  of  these  can  be  alluded  to  on  this  occasion.  Of 
sound  judgment,  great  practical  knowledge,  unbending  in- 
tegrity, and  with  a  heart  kind  as  that  of  a  woman,  he  knew 
nothing  like  fear,  and  went  right  on,  wherever  the  path  of 
duty  led.  He  knew  neither  friend  nor  foe,  in  his  judgment 
of  what  was  just,  and  when,  to  accomplish  some  party  ar- 
rangement, it  became  necessary  to  sacrifice  a  model  officer, 
he  retired  with  dignity  to  private  life,  where  he  needed  no 
extrinsic  influence  to  command  respect,  and  there  and  thus 
he  died. 

To  speak  of  the  Bar  individually,  would  obviously  exceed 
the  limits  of  my  time  or  your  indulgence. 

T  find  upon  the  List  of  Counsellors  in  1830,  the  names 
of  fifty-six,  of  Attorneys  at  the  Supreme  Court,  sixteen,  and  of 
Attorneys  at  the  C.  C.  Pleas  the  names  of  fourteen,  mak- 
ing eighty-six  in  the  whole.  These  were  scattered  in  une- 
qual numbers  through  thirty-five  of  the  then  fifty-four  towns 
in  the  County. 

Of  that  number,  forty-five  have  died.  Eighteen  who  are 
now  living,  have  left  the  County,  others  have  retired  from 
professional  life,  till  ten  only  now  remain  in  practice  at  the 
Bar. 

Within  the  period  mentioned,  from  one  hundred  and  forty 
to  one  hundred  and  fifty  have  been,  at  different  times,  or 
now  are,  members  of  the  Bar,  in  addition  to  the  eighty-six 
first  mentioned.  About  ninety-five  of  these  still  remain 
connected  with  the  profession  in  the  County.     Sixteen  of  the 

*■'  Vid  Appendix,  E. 
6 


42 

towns  in  which  lawyers  were  settled  in  1830,  no  longer  enjoy 
the  liffht  of  such  luminaries  of  their  own.  Death,  or  an  ex- 
hausted  treasury,  has  driven  them  from  the  former  scenes  of 
their  struggles. 

These  few  statistics  show  the  rapid  changes  that  are  con- 
stantly taking  place  in  the  condition  of  our  Bar.  A  profes- 
sional life  is  proverbially  brief,  and  a  young  aspirant  for  its 
honors,  has  hardly  got  through  wishing  Providence  to  pro- 
vide for  the  seniors  that  stand  between  him  and  success,  be- 
fore he  finds  himself  equally  a  subject  of  the  prayers  of  his 
juniors,  who  crowd  and  jostle  him  in  his  course,  before  he 
has  hardly  had  time  to  measure  his  own  speed. 

For  this,  or  some  other  reason,  the  prizes  that  are  won, 
are  few  compared  with  the  whole  number  that  enter  the 
arena  to  compete  for  them. 

When  we  read  of  the  receipts  of  some  of  the  eminent 
English  Barristers,  or  of  some  of  the  Bar  of  our  own  country, 
we  make  a  false  estimate  of  the  true  amount  of  success  that 
is  achieved  by  the  profession  at  large. 

Forced  by  the  position  in  which  they  are  placed,  to  assume 
the  externals  of  competency,  the  public  at  large  are  little 
aware  how  often  this  gives  a  false  impression  as  to  profes- 
sional success. 

I  am  not  disposed  to  complain,  nor  do  I  believe  our  own 
Bar  has  not  been,  when  compared  with  others,  reasonably 
successful  and  prosperous.  But  the  statistics  of  the  Probate 
office  tell  rather  a  sad  tale. 

Of  the  estates  of  forty-five  of  the  lav/yers  of  the  County 
living  in  1830,  nine  had  no  inventories  returned,  though 
these  embraced  some  who  had  been  tlie  most  successful. 
Twelve  were  either  never  settled  at  all,  or  settled  in  some 
other  jurisdiction.  Twenty  had  inventories  or  accounts  ren- 
dered, only  one  of  which  exceeded  fifty  thousand  dollars,  and 
a  very  small  portion  only,  if  any,  of  that  was  the  fruits  of 
professional  labor.  Nine  who  had  property,  amounted  to 
less  than  five  thousand  dollars  each,  and  four  of  them  aver- 


43 

aged  less  than  seventy-six  dollars  each,  while  six  of  the  es- 
tates were  insolvent,  as  shown  by  the  record,  and  there  is 
good  reason  to  know  that  of  the  twelve  estates  not  settled 
here,  at  least  seven  were  insolvent,  making  more  than  one 
in  four  of  the  whole  forty-five  estates,  that  were  altogether 
insolvent. 

It  is  certainly  with  very  little  pleasure  that  I  refer  to 
these  results^  and  it  is  with  far  more  grateful  feelings,  that 
I  turn  to  what  the  Bar  of  Worcester  County  has  achieved 
in  the  way  of  reputation. 

I  will  not,  however,  in  so  doing,  refer  to  the  suggestions 
of  my  own  partial  judgment,  but  appeal  to  the  recorded 
opinions  of  others,  in  the  fact,  that  of  those  who  are  or  have 
been  living  within  the  period  of  which  I  am  speaking,  three 
have  held  the  place  of  Chief  Magistrate,  three  that  of  Judge 
of  the  Supreme  Court,  and  that  a  place  upon  that  Bench  was 
tendered  to  two  others  of  the  number.''  Four  have  been 
Judges  of  the  C.  C.  Pleas.  One  for  many  years  a  Senator, 
and  ten  have  been  members  of  the  House  of  Representatives 
in  Congress,  and  one  has  been  a  Foreign  Minister  of  the 
United  States. j 

Happy  should  I  be,  to  speak  in  detail  of  most  of  those 
who  once  filled  these  places.  As  I  run  my  eye  along  the  cat^ 
alogue  of  their  names,  their  forms  rise  in  fancy  before  me, 
and  they  seem  to  stand  among  us  again,  each  in  his  own 
marked  and  well  remembered  traits  of  person  and  character. 

The  Hastings — father  and  sons. — The  first,  without  the 
graces  of  oratory,  was  for  many  years  a  formidable  antago- 
nist before  a  Jury,  and  before  the  Court  exerted  an  influence 
by  his  very  respectable  acquirements  as  a  lawyer,  and  his 
ability  as  a  reasoner. 

The  eldest  of  the  sons  was  perhaps  a  better  lawyer.  He 
possessed  much  ready  wit,  was  a  man  of  honorable  and  agree- 
able qualities,  and  died  in  the  midst  of  his  usefulness  and 

"Hon.  John  Davis,  and  lion.  Charles  Allen. 

fHon.  George  Folsom,  Minister  at  the  Hague,  from  '49  to  '53. 


44 

public  honors,  ere  age  had  saddened  life  with  its  bitter  ex- 
periences. 

Tufts — the  man  whom  his  friends  knew  better  than  the 
world  did,  and  saw  struggling,  under  the  stimulus  of  an 
honorable  ambition,  to  gain  for  himself  a  rank  in  his  pro- 
fession, while  lurking  disease  was  wasting  the  powers  of  his 
body,  and  consigning  him  to  an  early  grave. 

He  lived  long  enough  to  enjoy  a  share  of  the  public  hon- 
ors of  the  day,  and  won  the  public  confidence,  as  he  had 
done  the  esteem  and  affection  of  his  associates. 

James — then  of  Barre,  venerable  in  years,  courteous  in 
his  bearing,  modest  and  reserved  in  his  temperament,  pass- 
ing through  a  long  life  without  spot  or  blemish  upon  his 
modest  fame. 

Goodwin — whose  antiquarian  and  scholarly  taste  was  but 
partially  reconciled  to  the  drudgery  of  the  profession  he  had 
adopted. 

Foster — the  high  souled,  pure  hearted  scholar  and  gentle- 
man, w^hose  chief  fault  was  an  undue  self-distrust  of  powers 
of  a  high  order,  and  unfortunately  for  the  full  develop- 
ment of  which,  he  was  above  that  necessity  which  is  the 
stern  school-master  of  so  many  in  that  profession,  which  he 
early  abandoned. 

BrooKvS — who  for  many  years  held  a  leading  rank  among 
the  lawyers  of  this  and  a  neighboring  county,  with  a  mind 
of  great  acuteness,  well  stored  with  legal  principles,  and 
whose  earnestness  and  fidelity  in  the  cause  of  his  client,  was 
acknowledged  by  all  who  witnessed  his  efforts  before  the 
Jury  or  the  Court. 

Taft — who,  though  bred  to  the  profession,  was  able  to 
indulge  a  taste  for  rural  pleasures  and  pursuits,  and  escape 
the  drudgery  of  the  law,  but  was  always  a  genial  om  pan- 
ion  at  the  bar,  and  was  often  honored  by  the  expression  of 
public  confidence,  by  being  called  to  offices  of  trust  and 
honor. 

Nor  would  I  pass  over  in  silence  the  name  of  Stebbins. 


45 

He  made  no  mark  in  his  profession  by  his  eloquence  or  learn- 
ing, hut  he  honored  it  by  his  incorruptible  integrity,  and 
though  he  laid  aside  its  duties  for  a  more  congenial  employ- 
ment, he  retained  through  life  that  high  estimation  of  a  true 
lawyer's  character,  which  he  had  illustrated  during  the  few 
years  he  was  connected  with  it. 

And  there  are  names  which  start  up  spontaneously,  at  the 
very  mention  of  a  social  hour. 

Lincoln — the  lawyer,  profound  and  learned  for  his  years, 
the  diligent  student  with  his  ever  ready  fancy,  and  playful 
wit,  the  genial  companion  and  the  man  of  taste  and  letters. 
If  he  ever  did  injustice  to  himself,  he  never  was  false  to  his 
faith,  or  disloyal  to  his  friendship. 

Baldwin — whose  sad  and  early  fate  was  the  only  thing 
that  ever  brought  pain  in  the  associations  which  his  name 
awakens.  Wedded  to  a  profession  for  which  he  had  no  sym- 
pathy, his  happiest  day  was  when  he  bade  it  adieu  for  a  po- 
sition far  more  congenial  to  his  taste. 

His  like  we  shall  never  look  upon  again.  His  better  qual- 
ities were  best  known  to  those  who  knew  him  best,  since  that 
never-failing  flow  of  humor  and  good  feeling  which  he  al- 
ways displayed,  almost  obscured,  at  times,  the  varied  learn- 
ing which  he  really  possessed. 

But  long  ere  this,  another  familiar  form  must  have  arisen 
in  fancy  before  your  vision.""  For  forty  years  he  filled  a  place 
at  the  Bar,  and  saw  one  generation  after  another  pass  away 
in  its  rapid  changes.  His  was  a  store  of  abstract  legal  prin- 
ciples, gathered  by  years  of  patient  diligence  in  study,  and 
his  processes  of  reasoning,  formed  upon  the  models  of  the 
school  men,  made  him  a  formidable  antagonist,  where  indus- 
try in  preparation,  and  the  application  of  keen  logic,  could 
be  brought  to  the  encounter. 

We  miss  him  in  our  daily  walks,  we  miss  him  at  our  so- 
cial gatherings,  and  the  last  of  his  old  associates  will  have 
passed  away  before  the  image  of  his  striking  figure  shall 

t  Samuel  M.  Burnside,  Esq. 


46 

cease,  as  fancy  peoples  the  scene,  to  come  and  linger  around 
a  spot  with  whose  duties  so  much  of  his  long  life  was  con- 
nected. 

One  other  who  had  held  the  place  of  County  Attorney,  and 
at  the  commencement  of  the  period  of  which  I  am  speaking, 
was  filling  the  responsible  post  of  Secretary  of  the  Common- 
wealth, since  that  time,  came  hack  to  enjoy  a  few  years  of 
retirement,  and  then  to  follow  where  so  many  of  his  com- 
panions and  associates  had  gone  before  him/-'-= 

The  field  of  literature  was  always  more  congenial  to  his 
taste,  than  the  agitations  and  excitements  of  the  profession, 
and  neither  his  health  nor  his  taste  allowed  of  his  again  en- 
o-ao'ino-  in  these,  after  giving  up  public  life,  and  few  of  those 
who  now  fill  these  seats,  know  from  personal  observation, 
how  to  measure  his  talents  or  his  worth. 

But  I  am  admonished  that  if  ever  anything  like  a  sketch 
of  the  members  of  this  Bar,  who,  within  the  last  twenty-five 
years,  have  laid  off  the  harness  of  life's  toils  and  duties,  is 
to  be  o'iven  to  the  public,  the  present  occasion  is  altogether 
too  brief  to  admit  of  its  being  done  here. 

And  yet  I  should  fail  to  meet  your  demands,  or  those  of 
my  own  feelings,  if  I  passed  over  in  silence  the  memory  of 
one  who  so  long  honored  and  adorned  this  Bar.f 

This  was  not  however,  the  only  sphere  in  which  he  achieved 
distinguished  success.  His  fame  was  a  national  one.  But 
I  leave  for  others  to  do  that  justice  to  his  character  as  a 
statesman,  which,  too  often,  comes  only  when  the  jealousies 
and  rivalries  of  party  have  been  buried  in  the  grave. 

Of  his  characteristics  in  his  professional  career,  I  could 
dwell  upon  what  a  connection  in  business,  and  a  long  person- 
al association,  impressed  upon  my  mind. 

If  he  was  not  what  may  be  called  a  technical  lawyer, 
learned  in  the  books,  he  had  that  sound  judgment,  clear  ap- 

'Ilon.  Edward  D.  Bangs  was  Secretary  of  State  from  1824  to  1S3G.     He 
died  April  2,  1838.     He  was  a  son  of  Judge  Bangs,  of  the  C.  C.  P. 
t  Hon.  John  Davis. 


47 

prehension,  and  almost  infallible  common  sense,  tLat  enabled 
him  to  detect  and  apply  the  principle  which  was  to  guide  in 
the  decision  of  a  question,  however  intricate,  and  to  trace 
analogies  and  perceive  distinctions,  often  subtle,  the  want  of 
which  so  often  misleads  the  most  learned  lawyer. 

And  having  settled  in  the  elaboration  of  his  own  mind, 
what  the  law,  in  any  case  submitted  to  him,  should  be,  he 
was  generally  able,  by  diligent  research,  to  bring  to  the 
support  of  his  own  conclusion,  authority  to  sustain  the  posi- 
tion he  sought  to  maintain. 

I  do  not  believe  any  court  ever  listened  to  an  argument 
from  him,  without  being  enlightened,  if  not  convinced.  It 
was  not  the  flippant  citation  of  cases  from  digests,  but  the 
clear,  simple  statement  of  sound  philosophy,  mingled  with  a 
respectable  and  creditable  amount  of  learning,  judiciously 
and  aptly  applied. 

Such  a  mind  would  have  been  invaluable  upon  the  Bench, 
but  a  well  founded  apprehension  of  a  want  of  physical 
ability  to  sustain  its  burdens,  deterred  him  from  entertain- 
ing a  proposition  to  accept  the  place. 

Of  his  efforts  before  a  Jury,  I  hardly  need  to  speak,  where 
they  have  been  so  often  witnessed. 

There  was  an  earnestness,  an  apparent  candor  and  sin- 
cerity in  his  manner,  a  clearness  of  statement,  a  singleness 
of  purpose,  that  never  sacrificed  the  success  of  a  cause  to 
the  graces  or  display  of  oratory,  and,  withal,  a  complete 
command  of  all  the  bearings  of  his  case,  that  enabled  him 
to  carry  it  forward  with  a  power  which  no  opposing  counsel 
ever  failed  to  appreciate  and  respect,  if  he  did  not  fear. 

As  a  wise  counsellor,  an  agreeable  and  entertaining  com- 
panion, whose  conversation  always  instructed,  and  whose 
playful  kindness  always  delighted,  no  man  ever  went  through 
the  tangled  wilderness  of  political  and  professional  life,  and 
left  more  for  friendship  to  remember,  and  less  to  forget, 
than  he,  whose  almost  speaking  countenance,  in  marble, 
greets  us  in  our  solitary  walks  in  yonder  cemetery. 


48 

I  have  spoken  of  the  past,  hut  what  am  I  to  say  of  the 
future  of  this  Bar  and  their  profession. 

Of  those  whose  names  now  swell  its  numbers,  how  few 
will  be  left  at  the  end  of  another  quarter  of  a  century,  to 
recal  those  of  us  who  take  part  in  the  festivities  of  this 
evening. 

As  I  contemplate  the  past,  and  address  myself  to  those 
who  are  hereafter  to  occupy  this  Bench  and  fill  these  seats, 
I  cannot  better  express  the  deep  sensibility  which  the  thought 
awakens,  than  borrowing  the  language  of  that  comprehen- 
sive prayer,  "  Sicut  patribus,  sic  vobis." 

We  have  seen  enough  of  change  in  our  own  day,  to  read 
change  and  progress   in   the   shadowy  history  of  the  future. 

In  the  growing  and  multiplying  relations  of  business  and 
social  life,  new  questions  of  interest  and  moment  will,  doubt- 
less, arise,  in  the  determination  of  which  the  same  process 
of  keen  analysis,  broa^l  speculation,  and  far-reaching  fore- 
sight, must  be  brought  into  exercise,  by  which  the  questions 
of  this  and  a  former  generation  have  been  mastered,  and 
the  imperishable  fabric  of  the  common  law  built  up. 

To  prepare  men  for  a  work  like  this,  requires  an  education 
and  a  training  which  can  only  be  acquired  in  the  school  of 
the  Bar 

Little  does  the  world,  at  large,  know  of  the  part  which 
an  able  and  educated  Bar  plays  in  the  business  of  self-gov- 
ernment, in  a  free  state. 

It  is  not  merely  in  giving  form  and  direction  to  the  leg- 
islation of  such  a  state,  but  what  affects  more  nearly  the 
enjoyment  of  personal  protection,  and  the  security  of  per- 
sonal rights,  it  puts  the  power  of  the  law  within  the  reach 
of  every  citizen. 

There  is  a  spirit  of  power  and  injustice  warring  upon 
unprotected  weakness,  now,  as  much  as  in  the  days  of  chiv- 
alry of  old,  though  it  may  not  manifest  itself  by  such  open 
deeds  of  oppression. 

The  arena,  moreover,  in  which  battle  is  to  bo  made  for 


49 

the  right,  is  no  longer  the  listed  field,  hut  the  Hall  of  Jus- 
tice, where,  though  the  champion  he  not  indeed  mailed  in 
armor,  as  true  faith,  as  fearless  courage,  and  as  devoted 
fidelity  are  demanded,  as  ever  signalized  a  Richard  or  a 
Bayard. 

And  say  what  men  may  of  the  profession,  there  is  in  that 
assurance  wliich  every  hody  feels  in  having  the  arm  of  a 
fearless  advocate  to  rest  upon,  that  which  half  disarms  op- 
pression of  its  power,  and  gives  to  the  feeblest  the  strength 
of  a  trained  and  disciplined  champion. 

In  the  facility,  however,  with  which  men  now  force  their 
way  into  the  profession,  there  is  no  little  danger  that  there 
may  be  found  those  whose  character  may  gradually  undermine 
this  public  confidence  in  professional  faith  and  honor. 

In  view  of  contingences  like  these,  I  can  hardly  exagger- 
ate the  importance  of  cultivating  in  the  profession  that 
feeling  of  self-respect,  which  shall  preserve  it  from  grovelling 
motives  and  unworthy  conduct.  The  science  they  profess 
is  a  noble  one,  and  its  investigation  and  pursuit  demand  the 
highest  powers  of  well  trained  and  honorable  minds. 

But  I  have  already  taxed  your  indulgence  too  severely, 
to  dwell  any  longer  upon  the  inseparable  connection  there 
is  between  the  character  of  a  people's  laAvs  and  the  growth, 
happiness  and  prosperity  of  a  nation,  and  I  hasten  to  close 
this  imperfect  presentation  of  our  subject,  in  the  language 
of  another. 

"  At  what  time  Law  commenced,  we  inquire  not — whether 
its  origin  was  in  any  respect  supernatural  or  not,  is  of  no 
moment  at  present,  but  certainly  it  was  when  human  pas- 
sions were  seen  tearing  the  weak  and  defenceless,  when  in- 
dividual greed,  individual  lust,  individual  hate,  and  most 
cruel  and  perilous  of  all,  individual  revenge,  ranged  like 
beasts  of  the  forest  amid  a  flock,  that  Law  unbared  her 
beautiful  brow,  and  bade  them  all  cower  beneath  the  eye. of 
reason." 


_A.  P  F*  E  IS^  D  I  X 


A. 

The  Judges  of  the  Supreme  Court  in  1830  were, 
Hon.  Lemuel  Shaav,  Ch.  J.; 
Hon.  Samuel  Putnam ; 
Hon.  Samuel  S.  Wilde  ; 
Hon.  Maecus  Moktox. 

Judge  Putnam  resigned  his  seat  upon  the  Bench  Jan'y  26, 
1842,  and  retired  altogether  from  public  life.  He  removed  from 
Salem  where  he  had  formerly  lived,  to  Boston,  many  years  before 
his  death.  He  died  July  3;,  1853,  at  the  age  of  85.  He  had 
succeeded  Judge  Parker  upon  his  promotion  to  the  place  of 
Chief  Justice  in  Sept.  1814.  He  was  succeeded  by  the  Hon. 
Samuel  Hubbard  of  Boston,  Feb'y  22,  1842. 

Judge  Wilde  retained  hi?.,  seat  upon  the  Bench  till  Nov.  5, 
1850.  He  was  appointed  June  17,  1815,  in  the  place  of  Judge 
Daniel  Dewey  deceased,  and  was  succeeded  by  Hon.  Geo.  T. 
Bigelow.  He  resided  in  Hallowcll  when  appointed,  but  upon 
the  separation  of  Maine  from  Massachusetts  removed  to  New  - 
buryport.  But  for  many  years  before  his  death  resided  in  Boston. 
He  died  June  22,  1855,  at  the  age  of  84. 

Judge  MoKTOx  held  the  place  of  Judge  till  Jan'y  1840,  when 
he  was  elected  Governor  of  the  Commonwealth.  He  was  ap- 
pointed to  the  place  July  4,  1825,  as  successor  to  Hon.  Levi 
Lincoln.  The  number  of  Judges  having  been  again  reduced  to 
four  upon  his  election   as  Governor,  no  successor  was  appointed. 

Hon.  Charles  A.  Dewey  was  appointed  to  the  Bench  under 
a  law  of  1837,  increasing  the  nimiber  of  Judges  of  that  Court 
to  five.     He  received  his  appointment  May  25,  1837. 


52 

Hon.  Samuel  Hubbard  succeeded  Judge  Putnam,  Feb'y  22, 
1842,  and  held  office  till  his  death,  Dec.  24,  1847,  and  was  suc- 
ceeded by  Hon.  Charles  E.  Forbes  of  Northampton. 

Hon.  Theron  Metcale  was  appointed  to  the  Bench  Feb'y 
25,  1848,  the  number  of  Judges  of  the  Court  having  been  in- 
creased by  an  act  of  the  legislature  to  five. 

Hon.  Charles  E.  Forbes  succeeded  Judge  Hubbard,  Feb'y 
7,  1848,  and  held  office  till  the  following  October,  when  he  re- 
signed and  was  succeeded  by  Hon.  Richard  Fletcher  of  Boston. 
Hon.  Richard  Fletcher  was  appointed  in  place  of  Judge 
Forbes,  Oct.  24,  1848,  and  held  office  till  Jan'y  1853,  when  he 
resigned  and  was  succeeded  by  Hon  Benjamin  F.  Thomas. 

Hon.  Geo.  T.   Bigelow  succeeded  Judge  Wilde,  Nov.  1850. 
By  an  act  cf  April  20,  1852,  the  number  of  the  Judges  of  the 
Court  was  increased  to  six. 

Hon.  Caleb  Gushing  was  appointed  under  this  act  a  Judge 
of  the  Court,  and  held  the  place  till  his  appointment  as  Attorney 
General  of  the  United  States  in  1853. 

Hon.  Pliny  Merrick  was  appointed  his  successor,  March, 
1853. 

Hon.  Benjamin  F.  Thomas  succeeded  Ju.dge  Fletcher,  Jan'y, 
1853. 
The  Bench,  therefore  now  consists  of 

Hon.   Lemuel  Shaw,   Ch.  J.; 
Hon.  Charles  A.  Dewey  ; 
Hon.  Theron  Metcale  ; 
Hon.  George  T.  Bigelow  ; 
Hon.  Benjamin  F.  Thomas  ; 
Hon.  Pliny  Merrick. 


B. 


The  Judges  of  the  C.  C.  Pleas  in  1830,  were 

Hon.  Ariemas  Ward,  Ch.  J.; 

Hon.  Solomon  Strong  ; 

Hon.  John  M.  Williams  ; 

Hon.   David  Cummings. 
Hon.    Judge    Williams    succeeded    Chief  Justice    Ward  in 


1841,  and  held  office  till  his  resignation  in  June,  1844,  when  he 
was  succeeded  by  Hon.  Daniel  Wells  of  Greenfield,  July,  1844. 

Hon.  Charles  H.  Wakrex  of  New  Bedford  was  appointed 
to  the  place  of  Judge  Williams,  promoted  in  1841,  and  held  office 
till  his  resignation  in  June,  1844. 

Judge  Strong  resigned  in  1843,  and  was  succeeded  by 

Hon.  Charles  Allek  of  Worcester,  who  was  appointed  in 
1843,  and  resigned  in  1845. 

On  the  1st  of  March  1843,  the  number  of  Judges  was  increased 
to  five,  and  to  fill  the  place  thus  created, 

Hon.  Flint  Merrick  of  Worcester  was  appointed  Judge 
of  this  Court,  and  held  the  place  till  1848,  when  he  resigned. 

Judge  CuMMiNGS  resigned  the  office  in  June  1844. 

Upon  the  resignation  of  Judges  Warren  and  Cummings,  Emory 
Washburn  and  Joshua  H.  Ward  were  appointed  to  the  seats  thus 
vacated,  in  July  1844. 

Judge  Ward  held  office  until  his  death,  May  29,  1848,  and 
was  succeeded  by  Judge  Byington. 

In  March  1845,  the  number  of  the  Judges  of  this  Court  was 
increased  to  six. 

Hon.  Harrison  G.  O.  Colby  of  Xew  Bedford  was  appoint- 
ed soon  after  to  the  new  seat,  and  resigned  in  1847. 

Hon.  Luther  S.  Cushing  was  appointed  in  1845,  in  place 
of  Judge  Allen. 

Hon.  Charles  E.  Forbes  succeeded  Judge  Colby  in  1847, 
and  held  office  till  Feb'y  7,  1848,  when  he  was  appointed  to  the 
Bench  of  the  Supreme  Court. 

Judge  Washburn   held  office  until  Dec.  1847. 

Hon.  Edward  Mellen  of  Wayland  was  appointed  to  the 
Bench  to  succeed  Judge  Washburn,  and  succeeded  Chief  Justice 
Wells  in  1854. 

Judge  CusHiNG  was  appointed  reporter  of  the  Supreme 
Court  upon  Judge  Metcalf's  promotion  to  the  Bench  in  1848,  and 
was  succeeded  by 

Hon.  George  T.  Bigelow  of  Boston,  who  held  office  until 
his  appointment  to  the  Supreme  Court  in  Nov.  1850. 

Hon.  Horatio  Byington  of  Stockbridge  was  appointed  to 
succeed  Judge  Ward  in  the  summer  of  1848,  and  held  office  till 
his  death,  February,  1856. 


54 

Hon.  JoNATHA]s^  0.  I'ekkins  succeeded  Judge  Forbes,  upon 
his  promotion  to  tlie  Supreme  Court  in  1848. 

Hon.  Thomas  Hopkinson  of  Lowell  was  appointed  to  suc- 
ceed Judge  Merrick,  upon  his  resigning  his  seat  upon  this  Bench 
in  1848.  He  held  office  until  1849,  when  he  resigned  and  was 
succeeded  by 

Hon.   E.  RoCKWOOD   Hoak  of  Concord.     He  held  oifice  till 
1855,  when  he  resigned  and  was  succeeded  by 
Hon.  Henky  Morris  of  Springfield. 

Hon.  Pliny  Merrick  was  a  second  time  appointed  to  the 
Bench  to  succeed  Judge  Bigelow,  on  his  promotion  to  the  Supreme 
Court,  Nov.  1850,  and  held   office  till  his  own  promotion  to  the 
same  Court  in  March,  1853,  when  he  was  succeeded  by 
Hon.  George  N;  Briggs  of  Pittsfield. 

May  24,  1851,  an  act  was  passed  increasing  the  number  of 
Judges  to  seven,  and  Hon.  Henry  W.  Bishop  of  Lenox  was  ap- 
pointed to  the  office  thus  created. 

Chief  Justice  Wells  died   June  23,    1854,  and  Judge   Mel- 
len  was  promoted  thereupon  to  the  vacancy  thereby  created,  and 
his  own  place  was  filled  by  the  appointment  of 
Hon.  George  P.  Sanger  of  Boston. 
The  Court  now  consisting  of 

Ch.  J.  Mellen, 

Perkins,    ^ 
Bishop, 
Briggs,        y 
Sanger, 
Morris, 


Justices. 


C. 

Judges  of  Probate. 

Hon.  Nathaniel  Paine  from  1801  to  1836. 
Hon.  Ira  M.  Barton  from  1836  to  1844. 
Hon.  Benjamin  F.  Thomas  from  1844  to  1848. 
Hon.  Thomas  Kinnicutt  1848. 

D. 
County  and  District  Attorneys. 
Until  1832,  the  old  system  of  County  Attorneys  for  the  several 


55 

counties  was  retained.  By  an  act  of  that  year  the  State  was 
divided  into  Districts.  The  middle  District  embraced  Worcester 
and  Norfolk  Counties. 

This  continued  until  May  1852,  when  Worcester  county  was 
created  into  a  separate  District. 

Hon.  Pliny  Merkick  was  appointed  County  Attorney  for 
the  Courty  of  Worcester  in  1824,  and  held  the  office  till  the 
creation  of  the  District  system,  when  he  was  appointed  the  first 
District  Attorney  for  the  Southern  District,  and  held  the  office 
till  his  appointment  to  the  C.  C.  Pleas,  in  1843. 

Hon.  Ezra  Wilkinson  was  appointed  to  succeed  Judge 
Merrick.  He  belonged  to  Dedham,  and  upon  the  District  being 
divided  ceased  to  act  for  Worcester  County. 

Benjamin  F.  Newton,  Esq.,  of  Worcester  was  appointed 
District  Attorney  of  the  new  Middle  District.  He  held  office  till 
his  death  the  succeeding  year,  and  was  succeeded  by 

P.  Emoky  Aldric'h,  Esq.,  then  of  Barre.  He  was  superceded 
and  removed  by  Governor   Gardner  in  Dec.  1855,  and 

John  H.  Mathews,  Esq.,  of  Worcester  was  appointed  in  his 
place. 

E. 

Shebiffs. 

Hon.  Calvin  Willard  of  Worcester  held  the  office  in  1830, 
having  been  appointed  in  1824.  He  resigned  office  and  was 
succeeded  by 

Hon.  John  W.  Lincoln  of  Worcester,  who  held  the  place 
till  his  removal  by  Governor  Boutwell  in  1851. 

James  Estabrook,  Esq.,  was  appointed  to  succeed  Col.  Lin- 
coln, and  continued  in  office  till  removed  by  Governor  Clifford 
in  1853. 

George  W.  Richardson,  Esq.,  was  commissioned  upon  the 
removal  of  Col.  Estabrook. 

F. 

The  Bab. 

The  following  names  were  borne  vipon  the  List  of  Members  of 
the  Bar  in  1830,  although   some  of  them  were  not  actively  en- 


gaged  in  the  business  of  tlie  profession.  Counsellors  are  distin- 
guished by  C.  prefixed  to  their  names,  Attorneys  of  the  Supreme 
Court  by  A.  and  Attorneys  of  the  C.  C.  Pleas  by  a.,  prefixed  to 
their  names.  Those  who  have  died  are  distinguished  by  '"''. 
Those  who  have  removed  from  the  County  by  r.,  annexed  to 
their  names.  Those  withdrawn  from  practice  by  f,  and  Members 
of  Congress  by  M.  C.  annexed.  Members  of  the  Senate  of  Mas- 
sachusetts in  italics. 

C.  Charles  Allen,  Worcester.     M.  C. 

A.   Samuel  C.  Allen,  Mendon,  Grafton. 

C.  Bevjamin  Adams,''^'  Uxbridge.    M.  C. 

C.  Jesse  Bliss,*  West  Brookfield. 

C.  William  B.  Banister/''  Brookfield,  r. 

C.  David  Brigham,""'"  Fitchburg,  r. 

C.  Ira  M.  Barton,  Oxford,  Worcester. 

C.  Leivis  Bigeloiv,'-^'  Petersham,  r.     M.  C^ 

C.  Aaron  Brooks,''-'  Petersham. 

C,  Frederick  W.  Bottom,*  Southbridge. 

C.  Christopher    C.   Baldwin,*  Sutton,  Barre,   Worcester. 

C.  Samuel  M.   Burnside,*  Worcester. 

a.  Peter  C.  Bacon,  Dudley,  Oxford,  Worcester. 

a.  Jason  B.  Blackington,  Holden,  r. 

a.  David  T.  Brigham,  Worcester,  r. 

C.  Sumner  Bastow,*  Sutton,  Oxford. 

C.  Linus  Child,  Southbridge,  r. 

a.  Amos  Crosby,*  Brookfield. 

C.  John  Davis,*  Charlton. 

C.  Alexander  Dustin,*  Sterling. 

C.  t  George  Davis,  Sturbridge. 

C.  John  Davis,*  Worcester,  M.  C. 

C.  Isaac  Davis,  Worcester. 

A.  t  Matthew  (James)  Davenport,  Boylston. 

a.  Francis  Deane,  Southboro',  Uxbridge. 

C.  NathH  P.  Denny,  Leicester,  r. 

C.  Waldo  Flint,  Leicester,  r. 

C.  Alfred  D.  Foster,'^'  Worcester. 

a.  Barlow  Freeman,*  Warren,  r. 

C.  f  William  E.  Green,  Worcester. 


57 

C.  Isaac  Goodwin,*  Worcester. 

A.  Daniel  Gilbert,*  North  Brookfield, 

A.  fWilliam  N.  Green,  Worcester. 

a.    Arad  Gilbert,  W.  Brookfield,  r. 

C.  Nathaniel  Houghton,'^''  Barre. 

C.  Epliraim  Hinds,  Harvard,  r. 

C.   Seth  Hastings,"^-  Mendon.     M.  C. 

C.    William  S.  Hastings,^''  Mendon.     M.  C. 

C.  Nahum  Harrington,*  Westboro'. 

C.  Daniel  Henshaw,  Worcester,  r. 

A.    Charles  G.  P.  Hastings,'^'  Mendon. 

A.  .Tubal  Harrington,  Worcester,  r. 

C.  Eleazer  James,*  Barre. 

a.    Silas  Jones,  Leicester,  r. 

C.  \  Thomas  Kinnicutt,  Worcester. 

C.  Joseph  G.  Kendall,^'  Leominster,  Worcester.     M. 

A.  Joseph  Knox,  Hardwick,  r. 

C.  William  Lincoln,*  Worcester. 

a.    George  W.  Livermore,  Millbury,  r. 

C.  Seth  Lee,*  Barre. 

C.  Clough  R.  Miles,  Athol,  Millbury. 

C.  Jacob  Mansfield,*  Warren,  r. 

C.  Pliny  Merrick,  Worcester,  r. 

C.  Rejoice  Newton,  Worcester. 

A.  Jos.  W.  Newcomb,  Templeton,  Worcester,  r. 

C.  William  Perry,*  Leominster. 

C.  Bufus  Putnam,*  Rutland. 

C.  Nathaniel  Paine,*  Worcester. 

C.  t  Charles  G.  Prentiss,  Worcester. 

A.  Joseph  Prentice,  Douglas,  r. 

A.  Thomas  Pope,*  Dudley. 

C.   Onslow  Peters,*  Westboro',  r. 

A.  Henry  Paine,*  Worcester. 

a.    William  Pratt,*  Shrewsbury. 

C.  Warren  Rawson,*  Mendon. 

C.  t  Samuel  Swan,  Hubbardston, 

C.  William  Stedman,*  Lancaster,  Charlton.     M.  C. 

C.  Moses  Smith,'^-'  Lancaster. 

C.  Jonas  L.  Sibley,*  Sutton. 


58 

C.  Simeon  Saunderson,*  Westminster. 

C.  Heman  Stebbins,-'-'  Brookfield. 

C.    George  A.  Tufts,'^-  Dudley. 

C.  f  Ehe7iezer  Torry,  Fitchburg. 

C.  Bezaleel  Taft,  Jr.,*  Uxbridge. 

C.  t  Joseph.  Thayer,  Uxbridge. 

A.  William  M.  Towne,*  Worcester,  r. 

a.    Edward  J.  Vose,*  Worcester, 

C.  Harry  Wood,*  Grafton. 

C.  f  Jared  Weed,  Petersham. 

C.  Lovell  Walker,^''  Templeton,  Leominster. 

C.  Emory  Washburn,  Leicester,  Worcester. 

C.  Nathl  Wood,  Fitchburg. 

a.    George  R.  M.  Witbington,  Boston,  Lancaster. 

a.    Charles  Wadsworth,  Barre,  Worcester,  r. 

a.    t  Solon  Whiting,  Lancaster. 

a.    Otis  C.  Wheeler,*  Worcester. 

C.  Joseph  Willard,  Lancaster,  r. 

C.  Abijah  Bigelow,  then  clerk  &c.,  Worcester.     M.  C. 

C.  Levi  Lincoln,  then  Governor,  Worcester.     M.  C. 

C.  Edward  D.  Bangs,*  then  Secretary  of  Commonwealth. 

C.    Calvin  Willard,  then  Sheriff. 

Those  who  have  been  members  of  the  Bar  since  that  time,  are 
arranged  alphabetically  below,  without  regard  to  whether  they 
Avere  originally  Counsellors  or  Attorneys  at  Law,  as  that  dis- 
tinction is  no  longer  retained. 

William  S.  Andrews,  Worcester,  Spencer,  r. 

Edward  Avery,  Barre,  r. 

P.  Emory  Aldrich,  Barre,  Worcester. 

Thomas  Abbott,  Millbury,  Blackstone,  r. 

Frederick  W.  Botham,  Douglas,  Southbridge. 

f  Ndhum  F.  Bryant,  Barre. 

Walter  A.  Bryant,*  Barre,  Worcester, 

Alexander  H.  Bullock,  Worcester. 

Charles  C.  Brimblecom,  Barre. 

Charles  D.  Bo-wman,  Oxford. 

Merritt  Barlow,  Southbridge,  r. 


59 

Lucian  C.  Boynton,  Worcester,  Uxbridge. 

Lewis  H.  Boil  telle,  Westboro',  r. 

Wm.  Sumner  Barton,  Worcester. 

William  0.  Bartlett,  Worcester,  r. 

Calvin  M.  Brooks,  Worcester. 

G.  F.  Bailey,  Fitchburg. 

Allen  Bangs,*  Worcester,  r. 

O.  L.  Bridges,  Worcester,  r. 

f  Isaac  Baldwin,  Clinton. 

Francis  A  Brooks,  Petersham,  r. 

S.  A.  Burgfess,  Blackstone. 

f  Edwin  Conant,  Sterling,  Worcester. 

Edward  Clark,*  Sutton,  Worcester. 

Henry  Chapin,  Uxbridge,  Worcester. 

J.  B.  D.  Cogswell,  Worcester. 

Samuel  Clark,  Northboro'. 

Nathan  T.  Dow,  Grafton,  r. 

Francis  H.  Dexoey,  Worcester. 

J.  T.  Dame,  Clinton,  Lancaster. 

John  A  Dana,  Worcester. 

John  C.  B.  Davis,  Worcester,  r. 

J.  W.  Draper,  Worcester,  r. 

Andrew  J.  Davis,*  Worcester,  r. 

James  E.  Estabrook,  Worcester. 

C.  C.  Esty,  Milford. 

Maturin  L.  Fisher,  Worcester,  r. 

George  Folsom,  Worcester,  r. 

Joel  W.  Fletcher,  Northboro',  Leominster. 

Charles  Field,  Athol. 

Dwight  Foster,  Worcester. 

Elisha  Fuller,*  Worcester. 

Jesse  W.  Goodrich,  Worcester. 

Samuel  B.  I.  Goddard,  Worcester. 

Frederick  W.  Gale,*  Worcester. 

J.  Martin  Gorham,  Barre. 

William  Grout,  Worcester. 

Benjamin  D.  Hyde,  Southbridge,  Sturbridge. 

f  J.  W.  Huntington,  Lancaster. 

t  Alexander  (Edward)  Hamilton,  Barre,  Worcester. 


60 

Charles  W.  Hartshorn,  Worcester, 

Elisha  Hammond,*  W.  Brookfield, 

Leander  Holbrook,  Milford. 

George  F.  Hoar,  Worcester. 

Franklin  Hall,  Worcester. 

James  H.  Hill,  N.  Brookfield. 

William  R.  Hooper,  Worcester. 

William  H.  Howe,  Worcester. 

S.  Holman,  Fitchburg,  r. 

William  T.  Harlow,  Spencer. 

Henry  S.  Hudson,  Worcester,  r. 

J.  Henry  Hill,  Worcester. 

Lincoln  B.  Knowlton,  Millbury,  r. 

Edward  Kirkland,  Templeton,  r. 

Thomas  G.  Kent,  Milford. 

t  William  S.  Lincoln,  Millbury. 

f  Daniel  W.  Lincoln,  Worcester, 

Aaron  Lyon,  Sturbridge. 

f  Edward  W.  Lincoln,  Worcester. 

Joseph  Mason,  Templeton,  Worcester. 

Lewis  A.  Maynard,  Worcester. 

Charles  C.  Mason,  Fitchburg. 

William  B.  Maxwell,  Worcester. 

Adolphus  Morse,  Worcester,  r. 

John  H.  Matthews,  Worcester. 

David  L.  Morrill,  Winchendon,  W.  Brookfield. 

D.  H.  Merriam,  Fitchburg. 

C.  H.  Merriam,  Leominster. 

L.  A.  Merriam,  Fitchburg. 

Andrew  D.  McFarland,*  Worcester. 

Amasa  Norcross,  Fitchburg. 

Benj.  F.  Newton,*  Worcester. 

George  G.  Parker,*  Ashburnham. 

Grenville  Parker,  Worcester,  r. 

H.  B.  Pearson,*  Harvard. 

f  Addison  Prentiss,  Worcester. 

Lucius  D.  Pierce,  Winchendon. 

Calvin  E.  Pratt,  Worcester. 

Lafayette  W.  Pearce,  Oxford,  Westboro'. 


i 


61 

Artemas  Rogers,  Fitchburg,  r. 

Abram  G.  Randall,  Millbury. 

f  George  W.  Richardson,  Worcester. 

Edward  Rogers,  Webster,  r. 

Henry  C.  Rice,  Worcester. 

William  W.  Rice,  Worcester. 

Martin  L.  Stowe,*  Northboro'. 

Isaac  Stevens,  Athol. 

Amos  W.  Stockwell,--'  Worcester,  r. 

J.  S.  Scammel,  Milford. 

N.  J.  Smith,  Blackstone,  Spencer,  r. 

Charles  H.  B.  Snow,  Fitchburg. 

William  F.  Slocum,  Grafton. 

George  Swan,  Hubbardston,  Worcester. 

C.  G.  Stevens,  Clinton. 

Elijah  B.  Stoddard,  Worcester. 

f  William  A  Smith,  Worcester. 

Henry  D.  Stone,  Worcester. 

William  L.  Southwick,  Blackstone. 

H.  B.  Sprague,  Worcester. 

H.  B.  Staples,  Worcester,  Milford. 

f  Benjamin  F.  Thomas,  Worcester. 

Paul  P.  Todd,  Blackstone. 

John  Todd,  Westminster,  Fitchburg. 

Benjamin  O.  Tyler,  Winchendon,  r. 

f  Joseph  Trumbull,  Worcester. 

George  S.  Taft,  Uxbridge. 

Newton  Tourtelot,  Webster. 

S.  P.  Twiss,  Worcester. 

Adin  Thayer,  Worcester. 

F.  H.  Underwood,  Webster,  r. 

A.  B.  Underwood,  Milford,  r. 

George  F.  Verry,  Worcester. 

Abel  Whitney,'^-'  Harvard. 

t  Asa  H.  Waters,  Millbury. 

Criles  If.   Whitney,  Templeton,  Winchendon. 

Milton  Whitney,  Fitchburg,  r. 

Thornton  K.  Ware,  Fitchburg. 

Charles  K.  Witherell,  Petersham,  Barre,  Worcester. 


62 

J.  Allyn  Weston,  Worcester,  Milford,  r. 
John  W.  Wetherell,  Worcester. 
]  Lemuel  Williams,  Worcester. 
William  A.  Williams,  Worcester. 
J.  C.  B.  Ward,  Athol,  r. 
Hartly  Williams,  Worcester. 
James  O.  Williams,  Worcester. 
Francis  Wayland,  Jr.,  Worcester. 
Geo.  A.  Wetherell,  Worcester. 
Charles  Wheaton,  Worcester,  r. 
Henry  S.  Wheaton,  Dudley,  r. 
Lemuel  Williams,  Jr.,  Westboro'. 

Hon.  Benjamin  Adams  was  born  in  Mendon,  Dec,  1764, 
was  graduated  at  Brown  University,  1788,  read  law  with  Hon. 
Seth  Hastings,  and  was  admitted  to  practice  at  Worcester  in 
1792.  He  began  practice  in  Hopkinton,  but  after  remaining 
there  less  than  a  year  removed  to  Uxbridge,  where  he  ever  after 
resided.  He  was  a  member  of  Congress  from  1816,  when  he 
was  elected  in  place  of  Judge  Brigham,  who  died  at  Washington, 
till  1821.  He  was  a  member  of  the  Senate  of  Massachusetts 
during  the  years  1814,  1815,  1816,  1823,  1824  and  1825.  He 
died  March  28,  1837,  at  the  age  of  72. 

SuMNEK  Bastow^  was  a  native  of  Uxbridge,  or  his  father  early 
removed  to  that  place.  He  was  a  graduate  of  Brown  University, 
in  the  class  of  1802.  For  some  time  after  he  left  College,  he 
was  engaged  in  mercantile  business,  but  he  afterwards  read  law 
with  Estes  Howe,  Esquire,  of  Sutton,  and  was  admitted  to  the' 
Bar  in  March,  1811.  He  opened  an  office  in  the  village  of  West 
Sutton,  where  he  did  a  large  professional  business  till  1823, 
when,  upon  receiving  the  appointment  of  Cashier  of  the  Bank 
at  Oxford,  he  removed  to  that  place,  and,  in  a  great  measure, 
retired  from  practice.  In  1824-5,  he  was  one  of  the  three  can- 
didates for  Representative  to  Congress,  from  the  Worcester  South 
District.  The  fourth  trial  resulting  in  the  election  of  John 
Davis.     He  died  at  Oxford,  Dec.  29,  1845,  aged  67. 

Jesse  Bliss  was  born  in  Brimfield,  and  was  graduated  at 
Dartmouth  in  1808.  He  studied  his  profession  with  the  Hon. 
Jabez  Upham.     He  practiced  law  in  what  is  now  West  Brook- 


63 

field,  after  his  admission  to  the  Bar  in  1812,  till  his  death,  Aug, 
25,  1853. 

Hon.  William  B.  Banister  was  born  in  Brookfield,  Nov.  8, 
1773,  and  was  graduated  at  Dartmouth  in  1797.  He  spent 
most  of  his  professional  life  in  Newburyport,  though  for  a  few 
years,  about  1830,  he  was  a  resident  of  Brookfield.  After  this 
period  he  returned  to  Newburyport,  where  he  died  July  1,  1853, 
at  the  age  of  79.  He  was  at  one  time  a  member  of  the  Senate 
from  the  County  of  Essex. 

David  Brigham  was  born  in  Shrewsbury,  Aug.  15,  1786, 
was  graduated  at  Harvard  in  1810,  and  afterwards  was  a  tutor  in 
Bowdoin  College.  He  practiced  his  profession  in  New  Braintree, 
Leicester,  Greenfield,  (where  he  was,  for  several  years,  a  partner 
with  Hon.  Samuel  C.  Allen,)  Shrewsbury  and  Fitchbiu-g.  From 
the  latter  place  he  removed  to  Iowa,  where  he  died  in  1843,  at 
the  age  of  57. 

Hon.  Leavis  Bigelow  was  born  in  Petersham,  and  was  grad- 
uated at  Williams  College,  in  1803.  He  studied  law  with  his 
father,  Daniel  Bigelow.  He  was  a  member  of  the  Senate  from 
Worcester,  from  1819  to  1821,  and  in  the  latter  year  was  chosen 
to  Congress  for  one  term.  He  was  a  sound  and  learned  lawyer, 
and  prepared,  and  in  1818  published,  a  digest  of  the  Massachu- 
setts Reports,  of  which,  after  an  interval  of  seven  years,  he  pub- 
lished a  second  and  enlarged  edition,  and  in  1830,  a  suj^plement 
to  this,  bringing  down  the  work  to  the  eighth  volume  of  Picker- 
ing's Reports.  It  was  a  Avork  of  great  labor  and  accuracy,  and 
has  never  been  surpassed  by  any  American  Digest. 

He  left  the  Commonwealth,  and  became  one  of  the  earliest 
settlers  of  the  now  flourishing  City  of  Peoria,  in  Illinois,  where 
he  held  the  office  of  Clerk  of  the  Courts  of  that  County,  at  the 
time  of  his  death,  Oct.  3,  1838. 

Aaron  Brooks  Avas  born  in  Petersham,  was  graduated  at 
BroAvn  University,  in  1817,  and  subsequently  Avas  a  Tutor  in 
that  Institution.  He  studied  his  profession  partly  Avith  Hon. 
Levi  Lincoln,  and  partly  AA'ith  Hon.  LeAvis  BigeloAV,  and  settled 
in  Petersham,  Avherc  he  continued  in  successful  practice  in  the 
Counties  of  Franklin  and  Worcester,  till  the  time  of  his  death, 
May,  1845. 


64 

He  left  a  son,  Francis  A.  Brooks,  who,  after  settling  in  the 
profession  for  a  few  years  in  Petersham,  removed  to  Boston. 

Fkedekick  W.  Bottom  was  born  in  Plainfield,  Conn.,  and 
was  graduated  at  Brown  University,  in  1802.  He  studied  law 
partly  with  Hon.  Tristram  Burgess,  of  R.  I.,  and  partly  with 
Hon.  Pliny  Merrick,  of  Brookfield.  He  first  settled  in  Charlton, 
in  1806,  and  afterwards  removed  to  Southbridge,  then  a  parish  of 
Sturbridge,  where  he  resided  till  his  death,  May  24,  1855,  at  the 
age  of  75. 

He  left  a  son,  now  in  practice  as  a  lawyer,  in  Southbridge. 

Christopher  C.  Baldwin  was  born  in  Templeton,  Aug.  1, 
1800.  He  was  fitted  for  College  at  Leicester  Academy,  was  a 
member  of  Harvard  until  May  of  his  senior  year,  1823,  when  he 
left  and  entered  the  office  of  Messrs.  Lincoln  and  Davis,  in  Wor- 
cester, and  was  admitted  to  practice  in  1826. 

He  began  practice  in  Worcester,  afterwards  was  in  business  a 
few  years  in  Barre,  from  whence  he  removed  to  Sutton.  He  af- 
terwards removed  to  Worcester,  and  soon  after  was  appointed 
Librarian  of  the  American  Antiquarian  Society. 

While  on  a  journey  in  Ohio,  he  was  thrown  from  a  stage  coach, 
and  instantly  killed,  in  Norwich  in  that  State,  Aug.  20,  1835. 
He  died  universally  lamented. 

Samuel  M.  Burnside  was  born  in  Northumberland,  N.  H., 
was  graduated  at  Dartmouth,  in  1805.  He  studied  law  with 
Judge  Ward,  of  Boston,  and  commenced  business  in  Westboro', 
in  March,  1810.  In  September  of  the  same  year,  he  removed  to 
Worcester,  where  he  continued  to  reside  the  remainder  of  his  life. 
His  reputation  for  learning  in  his  profession  was  high.  He  re- 
tired from  business  several  years  before  his  death,  which  took 
place  July  29,  1850,  at  the  age  of  67. 

Amos  Crosby  was  born  in  Brookfield,  was  graduated  at  Har- 
vard in  1786,  afterwards  Preceptor  of  Leicester  Academy,  and 
subsequently  a  Tutor  in  Harvard  University.  He  was  admitted 
to  the  Bar,  and  settled  in  the  profession  of  the  law  in  Brookfield, 
in  1804,  where  he  continued  till  his  death,  June,  1836,  at  the 
age  of  75. 

John  Davis,  Jr.,  as  he  was  known  at  the  Bar,  was  born  in 
Shirley,  was  never  graduated  at  College,  studied  law  with  Mer- 
rick Rice,  of  Lancaster,  and   from   1811   to  1821  was  in  practice 


65 

in  Lancaster.  The  latter  year  lie  removed  to  Charlton,  where 
he  remained  engaged  in  his  profession  until  his  death,  July  8, 
1840. 

Hon.  John  Davis  was  born  in  Northboro',  was  fitted  for  Col- 
lege at  Leicester  Academy,  was  graduated  at  Yale  in  1812, 
studied  law  with  Hon.  Francis  Blake,  began  practice  in  Spencer, 
but  soon  afterwards  removed  to  Worcester,  where  he  ever  after- 
wards resided.  In  1825  he  was  elected  to  Congress,  and  held 
the  place  till  1834,  when  he  was  elected  Governor  of  the  Com- 
monwealth. 

In  March,  1835,  he  was  elected  Senator  in  Congress,  and  held 
the  office  till  Jan'y,  1841,  when  he  was  again  elected  Governor, 
and  held  the  office  two  years.  In  March,  1845,  he  was  again 
elected  Senator  in  Congress,  and  held  the  office  till  March,  1853, 
when  he  retired  to  private  life,  and  died  April  19,  1854,  at  the 
age  of  67.  He  was  at  different  times  a  partner  in  business  with 
Levi  Lincoln,  Jr.,  Charles  Allen  and  Emory  Washburn.  His 
son,  J.  C.  B.  Davis,  was  for   several  years  a  member  of  this  Bar. 

Hon.  Alfred  D.  Foster  was  born  in  Brookfield,  July  26, 
1800,  was  graduated  at  Harvard  in  1819,  studied  law  with  S.  M, 
Burnside,  Esq.,  was  engaged  in  his  profession  about  two  years  in 
Worcester,  after  which  he  withdrew  from  the  practice.  He  was 
three  years  a  member  of  the  Executive  Council,  and  a  member 
of  the  Senate  from  Worcester  in  1848.  He  was  a  man  of  great 
worth,  and  universally  respected.  He  died  Aug.  15,  1852.  He 
left  a  son,  now  in  practice  in  Worcester  as  a  Lawyer. 

Isaac  Goodwin  was  born  in  Plymouth,  June  28,  1786,  but 
was  never  graduated  at  any  College.  He  studied  law  with  Hon. 
Joshua  Thomas.  He  commenced  practice  in  Boston,  in  1808, 
but  removed  and  was  settled  in  Sterling  in  his  profession,  from 
1809  till  1826,  when  he  removed  to  Worcester.  He  continued 
to  reside  there  till  his  death.  He  published  the  "  Town  Officer  " 
in  1826,  and  the  "  New  England  Sheriff"  in  1830.  His  death 
took  place  Sept.  16,  1832,  aged  46. 

Alexander  Dustin  Avas  born  in  New  Boston,  N.  H.,  April 
17,  1776,  was  graduated  at  Dartmouth  in  1799,  studied  law 
with  Hon.  S.  Bell,  of  Francistown,  Hon.  Wm.  Crosby,  of  Bil- 
lerica,  and  Hon.  Joseph  Locke,  of  Billerica,  and  was  admitted 
to  practice  in  Nov.,  1804.  He  first  settled  in  Harvard,  but  after 
9 


66 

five  years,  in  1810,  removed  to  Westminster,  where  lie  remained 
until  1826,  when  he  removed  to  Sterling,  where  he  continued  to 
reside  until  his  death,  Jan'y  24,  1837,  at  the  age  of  60. 

Daniel  Gilbert  was  a  native  of  Brookfield,  was  graduated 
at  Dartmouth  in  1796,  and  was  admitted  to  the  Bar  in  1805. 
He  resided  at  North  Brookfield  till  his  decease,  tliough  for  several 
years  of  the  latter  part  of  his  life,  he  had  withdrawn  from  prac- 
tice.    He  died  March  11,  1851,  at  the  age  of  76. 

Hon.  Nathaniel  Houghton  was  born  in  Sterling,  but  did 
not  receive  a  collegiate  education.  He  studied  law  with  the  Hon. 
Nahum  Mitchell,  of  Bridgewater,  commenced  practice  in  Barre, 
in  1810,  and  continued  to  reside  there  till  his  death,  Dec.  21, 
1840.  He  was  a  Senator  from  Worcester,  in  1825,  and  the  two 
following  years. 

Hon.  Seth  Hastings  was  born  in  Cambridge,  was  graduated 
at  Harvard  in  1782,  and  studied  law  with  Hon.  Levi  Lincoln, 
Senior.  He  was  admitted  to  the  Bar  in  June,  1786,  and  com- 
menced practice  in  Mendon,  where  he  ever  after  resided.  His 
business  extended  to  Norfolk  as  well  as  Worcester,  and  was  at 
one  time  very  extensive. 

From  1801  to  1807  he  was  a  member  of  Congress,  and  from 
1810  to  1812  was  a  member  of  the  Senate  from  Worcester. 
From  1819  to  1828  he  was  Chief  Justice  of  the  Court  of  Sessions 
for  this  County.  When  he  commenced  business,  there  were  but 
eleven  lawyers  in  practice  in  the  County. 

He  died  at  the  age  of  70,  Nov.  19,  1831. 

He  left  two  sons,  members  of  the  profession,  both  of  whom 
have  since  deceased. 

Hon.  William  S.  Hastings  was  son  of  the  above,  and  born 
in  Mendon,  1798,  was  graduated  at  Harvard  in  1817,  studied 
law  with  his  father,  and  was  admitted  to  the  Bar  in  1820.  He 
settled  in  Mendon,  where  he  resided  till  his  death,  June  17,  1841. 
He  was  a  member  of  the  Senate  from  Worcester  from  1830  to 
1833.  He  had  been  three  times  elected  to  Congress,  and  died 
while  a  member,  at  the  Sulphur  Springs,  in  Virginia.  He  was 
never  married. 

Nahum  Habkington  was  born  in  Westboro',  June  13,  1778, 
and  was  graduated  at  Brown  in  1807.  He  studied  law  with 
Hon.  Fisher  Ames,  and  Hon.  James  Richardson,  and  was  admitted 


67 

to  practice  in  April,  1811.  He  immediiately  opened  an  oiRce  in. 
Westboro',  where  he  resided  till  his  death,  Dec.  31,  1848,  at  the 
age  of  70. 

Hon.  Charles  C.  P.  Hastings,  son  of  Hon.  Seth  Hastings, 
was  born  in  Mendon,  and  was  graduated  at  Brown  in  1825. 
He  studied  law  a  part  of  the  time  with  Judge  Howe,  at  North- 
ampton, and  a  part  with  his  brother,  Hon.  VVm.  S.  Hastings. 
He  was  admitted  to  the  Bar,  Sept.,  1828,  and  settled  in  Mendon, 
where  he  resided  till  his  death,  Sept.  25,  1848,  at  the  age  of  44. 
He  was  a  member  of  the  Senate  from  Worcester  in  the  years 
1840  and  1841. 

Hon.  Joseph  G.  Kendall  was  born  in  Leominster,  was 
graduated  at  Harvard  in  1810,  and  for  five  years  was  a  Tutor  in 
that  University.  He  studied  law  with  Hon.  Abijah  Bigelow, 
and  settled  in  Leominster,  where  he  remained  till  1833,  when 
he  was  appointed  Clerk  of  the  Courts  for  this  County.  He  held 
this  office  till  his  death,  Oct.  2,  1847,  at  the  age  of  59.  In  1824, 
he  was  elected  to  the  Senate,  from  Worcester,  and  held  the  office 
four  years.  He  was  a  member  of  Congress  during  the  years 
1830  to  1833,  the  21st  and  22d  Congresses. 

Eleazeb  James  was  born  at  Cohasset,  in  1754,  and  was  grad- 
uated at  Harvard  in  1778.  He  was  a  Tutor  in  that  institution 
from  1781  to  1789.  He  studied  theology,  and  preached  for  a 
time,  though  he  never  was  settled.  He  then  studied  law  with  Hon. 
Levi  Lincoln,  Senior,  and  began  business  in  Barre,  where  he  re- 
sided till  near  the  close  of  his  life,  when  he  removed  to  the  fam- 
ily of  his  son-in-law,  Hon.  Charles  Allen,  in  Worcester,  where 
he  died,  April  14,  1843,  at  the  age  of  89. 

William  Lincoln  was  born  in  Worcester,  Sept.  26,  1801, 
and  was  son  of  Hon.  Levi  Lincoln,  Senior.  He  was  graduated 
at  Harvard,  in  1822,  studied  law  with  Hon.  Enoch  Lincoln,  in 
Maine,  Hon.  John  Davis,  and  Hon.  Rejoice  Newton,  who  had 
married  his  sister,  with  whom  he  was  afterwards  for  several 
years  a  partner  in  business.  He  was  admitted  to  the  Bar,  in 
August,  1825,  and  died  at  the  age  of  42,  Oct.  5,  in  the  year 
1843. 

Seth  Lee  was  born  in  Barre,  but  did  not  receive  a  collegiate 
education.  He  was  somewhat  advanced  in  life  when  he  began 
the  study  of  the  law,  which  he   pursued,  as  is  understood,  in  the 


68 

office  of  Hon.  Jabez  Upham,  and  was  admitted  to  the  Bar,  in 
1810.  He  established  himself  in  business  in  Barre,  where  he 
remained  till  his  death,  in  March,  1841. 

Jacob  Mansfield  was  born  in  Lynn,  was  awhile  a  member 
of  Harvard  University,  but  did  not  graduate.  He  studied  law 
for  a  time  with  Judge  Putnam,  in  Salem.  He  settled  in  Wes- 
tern, (now  Warren)  but  left  there  and  went  to  the  City  of  New 
York,  where  it  is  supposed  he  died. 

William  Perry  was  born  in  Leominster,  April  15,  1786, 
was  never  graduated  at  College,  studied  his  profession  with  the 
Hon.  Abijah  Bigelow,  and  established  himself  in  business  in  his 
native  town,  having  been  admitted  to  the  Bar  in  August,  1813. 
He  died  in  August,  1844,  at  the  age  of  58. 

RuFUS  Putnam  was  born  in  Warren,  then  Western,  and  was 
;^raduated  at  Williams  College  in  1804.  He  settled  in  the  prac- 
tice of  his  profession  in  Rutland,  where  he  resided  till  his  death, 
Jan'y  18,  1847,  at  the  age  of  64. 

Hon.  Nath'l  Paine  was  born  in  Worcester,  and  was  gradu- 
ated at  Harvard  in  1775.  He  studied  law  with  Hon.  John 
Sprague,  of  Lancaster,  and  was  admitted  to  the  Bar  in  1781. 
He  began  business  in  Groton,  but  after  four  years  removed  to 
Worcester,  where  he  resided  during  the  remainder  of  his  life- 
He  held  the  office  of  County  Attorney  for  some  time,  and  in 
1801,  was  appointed  Judge  of  Probate  for  the  Coimty  of  Wor- 
cester. This  office  he  held  for  thirty-five  years,  and  died,  Oct.  7, 
1840,  at  the  age  of  82. 

William  Pratt  was  born  in  Shrewsbury,  was  graduated  at 
Brown  in  1825,  studied  law  with  Judge  Merrick,  and  began 
business  in  Shrewsbury.  He  remained  there  till  1835,  when  he 
removed  to  Worcester,  and  formed  a  professional  connection  with 
Judge  Merrick,  which  continued  for  a  short  time.  He  died  Feb. 
2,  1839. 

Warren  Rawson  was  born  in  Mendon,  and  was  graduated 
at  Brown  in  1802.  He  studied  law  a  part  of  the  time  with 
Judge  Bangs,  and  a  part  of  the  time  with  Hon.  S.  Hastings. 

He  began  business  in  Mendon,  where  he  remained  till  his  death, 
June  17,  1848,  aged  71. 

Hon.  William  Stedman  was  graduated  at  Harvard  in  1784. 
He  was  admitted  to  the  Bar  in  Essex,  in  1787.     He  practiced 


69 

law  in  Lancaster,  and  in  1803  was  elected  to  Congress,  of  wiiich 
body  lie  was  a  member  till  1810.  In  the  latter  year  he  was  ap- 
pointed Clerk  of  the  Courts  for  this  County,  which  place  he  held, 
Avith  the  exception  of  one  year,  till  1816.  He  then  resumed  his 
profession  in  Charlton,  but  afterwards  removed  to  Lancaster.  He 
died  at  Newburyport,  in  Sept.,  1831,  at  the  age  of  66. 

Thomas  Pope  was  born  in  Dudley,  and  was  graduated  at 
Brown  University,  in  1809.  He  settled  in  business  in  Dudley, 
where  he  resided  till  his  death,  March  7,  1854,  at  the  age  of  66. 

Hon.  OxsLow  Peters.  Since  the  preparation  of  the  address 
of  which  these  notices  form  an  appendix,  the  death  of  Judge 
Peters  has  been  announced.  He  was  born  in  Westboro',  March 
1,  1803,  was  graduated  at  Brown  in  1825,  and  studied  law  partly 
with  Judge  Howe  and  Hon.  Mr.  Mills,  at  Northampton,  and 
partly  with  Hon.  Samuel  Hoar.  He  was  admitted  to  the  Bar 
in  Middlesex,  in  September,  1828,  and  soon  after  commenced 
business  in  Westboro'.  After  residing  there  several  years,  he 
removed  to  Peoria,  Illinois,  and  at  the  time  of  his  death,  held 
the  office  of  Circuit  Judge  of  the  16th  Circuit  of  that  State. 
He  died  at  Washington,  February,  1856. 

Henry  Paine  was  a  son  of  Judge  Paine,  and  born  in  Wor- 
cester. He  entered  Yale  College,  but  did  not  graduate.  He 
studied  law  with  Samuel  M.  Burnside,  Esq.,  and  commenced 
business  in  Worcester,  where  he  resided  till  his  death,  in  May, 
1844. 

Hon  MosEs  Smith  was  admitted  to  practice  at  Worcester, 
December  Term,  1802,  and  commenced  practice  in  Lancaster, 
which  he  abandoned  after  a  period  of  twenty-three  years.  He 
continued  to  reside  there,  however,  till  his  death,  June  29,  1835, 
at  the  age  of  58.  He  was  never  graduated  at  any  College.  He 
was  a  member  of  the  Senate  from  Worcester  from  1814  to  1816. 

Jonas  L.  Sibley  was  born  in  Sutton,  the  son  of  Hon.  Jonas 
Sibley.  He  was  graduated  at  Brown  in  1813,  and  studied  law 
Avith  Hon.  Levi  Lincoln.  He  settled  in  business  in  Sutton,  and 
remained  there  till  1834,  when  he  was  commissioned  as  U.  S. 
Marshal  for  the  District  of  Massschusetts.  He  held  this  office 
eight  years,  and  then  returned  to  Sutton,  but  never  resumed  his 
profession.  After  several  years  of  ill  health,  he  died,  Feb'y  1, 
1852,  at  the  age  of  61. 


70 

Heman  Stebbins  was  born  in  W.  Springfield,  was  graduated  at 
Yale  in  1814.  He  practiced  law  for  several  years  in  Brookfield, 
but  abandoned  it  for  the  pi-ofession  of  a  Civil  Engineer  some 
years  before  his  death,  which  took  place  Nov.,  1838. 

Simeon  Sattnderson  never  received  a  collegiate  education. 
He  was  admitted  to  the  Bar  in  1820,  and  practiced  law  in  West- 
minster.    He  died  in  July,   1842. 

Hon.  Geokge  A.  Tufts  was  born  in  Dudley,  the  son  of 
Hon.  Aaron  Tufts,  Feb'y  22,  1797.  He  was  graduated  at  Har- 
vard in  1818,  was  for  one  year  and  a  quarter  a  member  of  the 
Law  School  at  Cambridge,  and  studied  law  one  year  with  Hon. 
Josiah  J.  Fiske,  and  the  balance  of  the  three  years  with  Hon. 
Levi  Lincoln.  He  was  admitte  1  to  the  Bar  in  Worcester,  Dec, 
1821,  and  entered  upon  the  practice  of  the  profession  in  Dudley, 
where  he  resided  until  his  death,  Dec.  25,  1835,  at  the  age  of  38. 

He  was  a  Senator  from  Worcester  for  the  year  1835. 

Hon.  Bezaleel  Tafx,  Jk.  was  born  in  Uxbridge,  the  son  of 
Hon.  Bezaleel  Taft,  and  was  graduated  at  Harvard  in  1804.  He 
commenced  practice  in  Uxbridge,  and  resided  there  till  his  death, 
in  1846,  at  the  age  of  66. 

He  was  a  Senator  from  Worcester  for  two  years,  having  been 
elected  in  1825,  and  was  afterwards  a  member  of  the  Executive 
Council. 

Hon.  LovELL  Walker  was  born  in  Brookfield,  was  graduated 
at  Dartmouth  in  1794.  He  was  admitted  to  practice  in  1801, 
settled  in  Templeton,  and  practiced  his  profession  there  for  many 
years,  but  removed  to  Leominster  a  short  time  before  his  death, 
which  took  place,  March  25,  1840,  at  the  age  of  72. 

He  was  a  member  of  the  Senate  during  the  years  1830  and 
1831. 

Otis  C.  Wheeler  was  born  in  Worcester,  and  studied  law 
with  Messrs.  Davis  and  Allen,  and  was  admitted  to  the  Bar  in 
1830.  He  died  at  St.  Augustine,  Florida,  having  been  in  busi- 
ness for  a  year  or  two  in  Worcester,  Feb'y  6,  1831,  at  the  early 
age  of  23. 

Walter  A.  Bryakt  was  born  in  New  Salem,  but  was  never 
graduated  at  any  College.  He  studied  law  Avith  Aaron  Brooks, 
Esq.,  and  practiced  his  profession  in  Barre,"  until  about  two  years 
before  his  death,  when  he  removed  to  Worcester  and  opened  an 


71 

office  there.     He  died  in  Paris,  having  reached  there  on  a  journey 
for  his  health,  in  the  Spring  of  1850. 

Allex  Bangs  was  born  in  Springfield,  and  began  business 
there.  He  opened  an  office  In  Worcester  for  a  short  time,  but 
was  compelled  by  ill  health  to  abandon  the  profession.  He  was 
graduated  at  Yale,  1846,  and  died  at  Springfield,  Nov.  24,  1853. 
William  M.  Towxe  was  born  in  Charlton,  the  son  of  Hon. 
Salem  Towne,  was  graduated  at  Amherst  in  1825,  and  studied 
law  with  Hon.  John  Davis  and  Hon.  Charles  Allen  while  part- 
ners, and  was  admitted  to  the  Bar  in  1828.  He  commenced 
business  in  Worcester  where  he  remained  till  1835,  when  he  gave 
up  the  profession  for  other  business.  He  resided  at  Springfield 
for  some  time  previous  to  his  death,  which  took  place,  April  20, 
1841. 

Edward  J.  Yose  was  born  in  Augusta,  Maine,  and  vras  grad- 
uated at  Bowdoin  College  in  1825.  He  studied  law  with  Messrs. 
Davis  and  Allen,  and  was  admitted  to  the  Bar  in  1828.  He 
opened  an  office  soon  after  in  Worcester,  and  died  May  25,  1831, 
at  the  age  of  25. 

Hakkt  Wood  was  born  in  Grafton.  He  did  not  receive  a 
collegiate  education.  After  being  admitted  to  the  Bar,  he  prac- 
ticed for  some  time  in  ]\Iaine.  He  afterwards  returned  to  Grafton 
where  he  remained  in  the  practice  of  his  profession  till  his  death, 
in  August,  1838. 

Edwakd  Clark  was  born  in  Charlton,  and  studied  law  with 
J.  L.  Sibley,  in  Sutton,  where  he  afterwards  practiced  law  for 
several  years.  He  removed  to  Worcester,  and  was  in  the  practice 
of  his  profession  there  at  the  time  of  his  death,  which  took  place 
on  a  journey  in  the  Western  States  in  the  summer  of  1849. 

Andrew  J.  Davis  was  born  in  Northboro',  1815,  and  studied 
law  with  his  brother,  Hon.  Isaac  Davis,  with  whom  he  formed  a 
connection  in  business  upon  his  admission  to  the  Bar  in  1834. 
After  about  a  year,  he  removed  to  St.  Louis,  where  he  continved 
in  practice  till  his  death,  in  June,  1840.  He  was  attacked  by  a 
ruffian,  by  the  name  of  Darnes,  in  the  streets  of  St.  Louis,  in 
consequence  of  an  article  published  in  the  St.  Louis  Republican, 
of  which  he  was  the  proprietor,  which  resulted  in  his  death. 

Elisha  Fuller  was  born  in  Princeton,  was  graduated  at 
Harvard  in  1815,  and  studied  theologv.      He  afterwards   studied 


72 

law,  and  commenced  business  in  Concord.  After  a  few  years 
residence  there,  lie  removed  to  Lowell,  and  continued  in  practice 
there  until  his  removal  to  Worcester,  in  1844,  where  he  resided 
till  his  death,  which  took  place  very  suddenly,  March  18,  1855, 
at  the  age  of  63. 

Fkedekick  W.  Gale  was  born  in  Northboro',  and  was  grad- 
uated at  Harvard  in  1836.  He  was  a  member  of  the  Dane  Law 
School  in  1838,  and  having  completed  his  preliminary  studies 
with  Hon.  Isaac  Davis,  he  formed  a  connection  in  business  with 
him,  till  1840,  when  he  established  himself  in  business  in  St. 
Louis,  from  whence  he  removed  in  a  few  years  to  Worcester. 
Here  he  remained,  with  the  exception  of  a  few  years  absence  in 
Europe,  until  his  death,  in  October,  1854,  having  been  lost  in 
the  wreck  of  the  Arctic  Steamer,  on  his  passage  home  from  Liv- 
erpool. 

Elisha.  Hammond  was  graduated  at  Yale  College  in  1802. 
He  pursued  the  practice  of  his  profession,  after  his  admission  to 
the  Bar  in  1806,  in  Brookfield.  He  was  absent  a  few  years  in 
New  York,  engaged  in  editing  new  editions  of  works  on  law,  and 
was  himself  the  compiler  of  a  work  upon  the  duties  of  Justices. 
The  last  few  years  of  his  life,  he  resided  in  Brookfield,  in  what 
is  now  West  Brookfield,  and  died  May  12,  1851,  at  the  age  of  70. 

Benjamin  F.  Newton  was  never  graduated  at  college.  He 
studied  his  profession  with  Hon.  Benj.  F.  Thomas,  and  Hon. 
Edward  Dickinson,  and  was  admitted  to  this  Bar  in  1850. 

Upon  the  formation  of  Worcester  County  into  a  separate  dis- 
trict in  1852,  he  was  appointed  District  Attorney,  and  held  the 
office  till  his  death,  which  took  place  March  24,  1853,  at  the  age 
of  32. 

Andrew  D.  McFarland  was  born  in  Worcester,  was  gradua- 
ted at  Union  College  in  1832,  and  studied  his  profession  with 
Messrs.  Davis  &  Washburn  in  Worcester.  He  commenced  busi- 
ness in  Worcester  upon  his  admission  to  the  Bar  in  1835,  and 
died  June  23,  1836,  at  the  age  of  25. 

Martin  L.  Stow  never  received  a  collegiate  education.  He 
was  in  practice  for  a  while  in  Southboro',  and  afterwards  removed 
to  Northboro',  where  he  resided  till  his  death  in  June,  1843. 

George  G.  Parker  practiced  his  profession  in  Ashburnham. 
He  died  April,  1853. 


73 

Amos  W.  Stockweli,  was  bom  in  Sutton.  He  was  a  mem- 
ber of  the  Dane  Law  School  in  1835,  and  completed  his  studies  in 
the  offices  of  Hon.  Ira  M.  Barton,  and  Hon.  Isaac  Davis.  He 
was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  1837,  and  established  himself  in  Worces- 
ter, where  he  remained  a  few  years,  when  he  removed  to  Chicopee, 
where  he  continued  to  practice  in  his  profession,  till  his  death, 
1853. 

Abel  Whitney  was  graduated  at  Williams  in  1810.  Though 
regularly  bred  to  the  profession,  he  engaged  in  the  business  of  a 
teacher  in  Boston  for  many  years. 

He  removed  to  Harvard  several  years  before  his  death,  and  en- 
gaged somewhat  in  practice  as  a  lawyer.      He  died  May  30,  1853. 


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